The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-09

At the time the question OF abolition first
arose In England, in i773. African slavery pre-
vailed In most Of the countries Of EuFope--in
the Islands of Europe and in the islands OF Asia
which were subject to European Kings. 1t pre-.
vailed over all North and South America, and
the Islands Of America II has since been abo-
ished In all these countries, except IN the four
teen slave States of this Union, Cuba, Porto
Rico and Bfazl--but little remains to be done
to complete the social revolution of christendom.
How is this revolution to be arrested Will il
20 back of its own accord On the contrary,
are not the elements tending to the final over
throw of slavery, gathering strength and be-
coming more arrogant, daring and presumptuous
daily! What motive can enter into the heart OF
Southern man, that can induce him to advise
this country to submit to the fatal action OF the
federal government, unless he is ready for eman-
cpation, and TO surrender the fairest portion Of
the South, and of the earth itself, to the African
race; for the plain and unmstakable issue pre-
scented TO the South is resistance or abolition,
and then, as consequence OF abolition, the
Southern country bordering upon the sea-shore
must be surrendered to the increasing millions
of the African race, or they must be destroyed
by the sword.
The deadly coil of the boa constructor is thus
around us the hold we have on life, on our ma
tional existence, grows weaker and weaker with
every pulsation of the heart Let the border
States progress as they arc now progressing,
for u brief season, and their number of slaves
will continually become less, until abolition with
them will create no conyulsion or alarm AS
the number Of slaves decrease, the number Of!
Abolitionists in the slave States increase. The
precedent hes already been made in the recent
ACKNOWLEDGMENT of Texas, that the public trea-
sury may be subsidized to purchase slave ter
ritory, to convert it into free-so II is but one
step farther to offer federal gold to State,
upon condition that such State shall emancipate
her slaves. Pearce's bill could not become a
law without the consent of Texas. The federal
government ,cM assume the po,cer 10 emancipafs,
If Slate ,oiU consent 10 The articles of agree
mem. England bought the slaves she emanci-
pated in her West India colonies for an hundred
millions of dollars.
| A Northern senator, during the last Congress,
offered an amendment to the bill aboishing the
slave-trade in the District of Columbia, which
proposed to appropriate out of the public treas
ury two hundred thousand dollars to pay for
the slaves in the District of Columbia, and then
10 emancipate them. This idea was neither
original or new. The British Parliament, in the
case referred to, has recorded precedent; and
as every step Of the AboIitionists of England
has, from the beginning, been followed by cor
responding acts by the Aboltionists of America,
the amendment proposed was sanctioned by the
authoritative precedent. The history of abOll-
ton from the beginning until now, shows IT,
fact that the negro is to be set free at the eX-
pense Of the toll and the sweat of the white
man, and the time may not be remote when a
Giddings or Seward may tender through the
action of an abolition Congress and an abolition
President, to Maryland, Kentucky, or Missouri,
ten, twenty, fifty millions of dollars, upon con-
dition that such a State or St,tes shall emanci
pate the remnant Of their slaves, after the great
number of them have been sold TO the South
Atlantic and gulf States. An event like this is
among the signs of the times Governments
are constituted to protect property TO destroy
| it by act of Parliament, would arouse the peo-
| pie to overt acts Of revolution. To buy prop
erty of the States, is one way to avoid the di,
rect mode of destroying property by legislation,
and in this way abolition triumphed in England
If we of the South are wise, the lesson will not
be lost upon us. The government may lay and
collect taxes to any extent, for that is constitu-
tional.
Whilst this process Of driving in the African
| from the interior TO the sea-shore is going on.
what is the state Of things which the future
presents to the Souts Atlantic and gulf States {!
The number of Africans in the South now
amounts to more than three millions. With a
boundless continent in sight they dare not pass
beyond the narrow limits assigned them. The
number of these people will soon increase to
ten, fifteen, twenty millions. There is greater
number Of them now, than the whole people OF
the United States, at the close of the revolu-
ton. 1t is needless to dwell on the state of
fbipre ,r,bich 81 NAVAL
opement is accomplished. and the final catas ro-
phe arrives. The heart sickens, humanity shud-
ders at the prospect The torch and the knife
on the one hand, and the rifle and the musket
on the other, must be resorted to, to decide the
question of supremacy between the two races
or our country must be given up to the negro,
and become, with all its refinement, its opu-
lence, and its fair fields the home Of reptiles-a
dark chasm of barbarism, desolaiion and aban-
donment
All nations pursue the policy of enlarging the
limits Of their soil, that population, as it in
creases, may have room to expand, that the
means Of Subsistence may be secures for re-
dundant population, and that the miseres Of
famine may be averted Ii this enlargement of
the soil of a State be accomplished by just
mears, it is consistent not only with a wise ma
tional policy, but also with the law of nature
and of nations The United Sta es. at the con-
clus on Of the late treaty with Mexico, were in
possession Of the means of national expansion,
to an extent unknown to any other State or
people. With public domain sufficient for the
national growth of all the States of the Union
for period Of five centuries, the Northern abo-
tion parliament has virtually set apart every
square mile of the public domain for the sole use
Of the people of the North, for the purpose of
giving supremacy TO the form of civilization
which they prefer, and to increase their already
paramount political power, and have thereby ut
terly excluded the people Of the saveholding
States and the form Of civilization which they
prefer, from all participation III its benefits, al
though mainly purchased with Southern blood
and treasure. Over the line which the North
has thus drawn around the South. the white
may pass, but the negro slave cannot, and to the
white mans permission to pass over, the hard
condition is appended, that he must abandon
forever the form of civilization under which he
was born, and adopt another to which he is
stranger in feeling and affection But be the