The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-09-04

preseuted let no one imagine that the South
would be divided. The argument Of the Courier
and Enquirer, founded upon the supposed injury
to be sustained by the sugar planters Of Louisiana
is feeble one They constitute very small
class with little political influence. The inter
ess Of some eight or nine thousand planters would
be as the dust in the balance compared with the
interest Of the South generally. And it is doubt
fol whether even they would be seriously damaged.
Their profits would probably be cut down to a
reasonable level, and il they were not Satisfied,
they could transfer their capital to cotton
growing The South generally would understand
that by the annexation Of Cuba, the cause Of Free
Trade would be rendered triumphant. Louisi-
ana, no longer controlled by the sugar monopoly,
would turn against Protection, and Cuba, as
matter of course, would demand unrestricted
trade with the markets of all nations
The Courier and Enquirer seems also to exagge-
rate the effect Of annexation in another way. II
would create, it says, " a demand for half mil
lion of negroes for transmission TO Cuba" and in
that way increase the cost of growing rice, tobac
co, ard cotton. The slaves in Cuba are treated
NOTbt IMAM bSdSbos 40 IL 10 lOuuu " liu-
port than to breed them. The result is that
there is a vast preponderance OF male slaves, and
so protracted and exhsusting is the labor required
Of them, that the average limit of life among them
is estimated at forty years. Hence the necessity
Of large slave importation, which is supposed to
amount annually to about 10000. Were Cuba
annexed, the foreign slave trade would be to
great extent prohibited, and the planters would
be led by self interest to provide for the preser-
walton and increase of their slaves; 80 that the
demand for labor, though still great, would not
be so urgent as it is now. Twenty thousand
slaves year would be probably many as would
be imported from the United States but the annu-
al slave increase in this country is than sixty
thousand, and several of the States which have
been in the habit of importing from Virginia,
Kentucky, Maryland, &c, being now amply sup
piled, are mediating the prohibition of the trade.
| 1t is easy TO see that the demand for slaves in
| Cuba would therefore quicken the slave trade,
aud raise the value Of slaves, without increasing
to an injurious degree the cost of growing the
staples of slave labor, or draining the States of
their slaves
! The Charleston Mercury scouts the notion that
! the annexation of Cuba would diminish the slave
population of the South
"The increase Of slaves in the United States
during the last ten years has been very nearly
900, 900, or at the rate of nearly $4,000 year
and we could accordingly bear the removal Of
that number annually without diminishing the
population at home. No such demand will OF
can be made upon the South, and they can popu-
late half dozen Cubas in the next thirty years
without feeling it, except in the sustained value
of slave property"
| Let us not be deceived. If we annex Cuba, we
! augment indefinitely the political power of Sla-
very and diminish the force of causes that are
now operating for the overthrow of the system in
the Northern slave States