The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-10

mated that in fifty years tie extreme Southern
States will contain vast population of slaves
far exceeding the whites who own them
Now does any man suppose that these dozen
millions or 30 Of slaves be kept in subsection
under such circumstances? 1t is folly to think
It. They will then have gained a vast addition
to their present average of intelligence; the
dangerous admixture of white blood will be in
fused among them in g eater proportion, and
not all the troops that Gun be raised and brought
to the field will DO sufficient to subdue them.
On this head read the lesson of st. Domingo.
When the blacks there rose upon their masters,
the proportion between the two was as 100000
to $4,000 The whites were driven from the
country with horrible cruelties, the natural re-
venge of a serviIc and oppressed race. Power
full armies were sent against these rcvoIted
slaves, millions upon millions were spent for
their subjugation, but in vain. A negro State
now occupies the lovecst and most fertile of
the Antilles, and by a natural sentiment Of jeal-
ousy no white is permitted to become citizen
Of the country.
A similar fate awaits the Southern extremity
of the United States, unless the whites are wise
betimes. There is no alternative between eman-
cipation under some form and servile revolt.
Sooner or later it must come, and let those sup
p0rters Of slavery who are most competent, Judge
whether halfa century is too soon for its arrival.
| Free the blacks, or in time they will terribly
free themselves. Men cannot be made chattels
forever-itis unsafe to suppose it. The negroes
of South Carolina and Mississippi may be docile
and submissive now, but they will not be so
always. That is a fatal deluson which cannot
DO too soon abandoned.
The part of wisdom IL to labor not for the
perpetuation of slavery, but for its removal. It's
perpetuation is impossible; its removal can best
be accomplished while the danger is still remote
We shall perhaps be told that but for the Abo-
litionsts slavery would now be much nearer it's
end than it is. That may be convenient reply
to the facts above stated, but it does not affect
the difficulties surrounding the question of eman-
cipation. No doubt those difficulties are great
enough, but they sink into insigni6cance, they
are nothing compared with those connected with
maintaining this institution.
Would to God that our brethren in the South
might open their ears to considerations 80 mo-
mentous, and that this cloud might be dispelled
from the future Of America Nor do we de-
spair of such miracle. Unpromising as are all
the signs Of public feeling in the slaves States,
we cannot suppose that this nation, the anointed
missionary of democratic liberty, can 30 signally,
so disgracefully perish, it must in the attempt
to perpetuate inhumanitles and evils of bondage.
Let us rather prophecy that without nsurrec-
ton or convulsion, the sun which first rises upon
the twentieth century will not behold slave
on the whole expanse of the American CONT
nent
Fugitive Slave Law.-POlicy Of the North.
We copied on Tuesday an article on this
subject from the most influential paper in the
Northern States-the New York Tribune. We
now subjoin a letter of the son of the late JOHN
Q. ADAMS, corresponding in sentiment with the
TT bune article, and which may be regarded as
indicative of the policy of the ant-slavery party
in reference to this law.
1t will be seen that the main point aimed at is
to amend the law as to require a jury trial Of
the fugitive bel, re delivery, that he may, through
the forms 9f,the statute, receive the benefit Of
their conscience" or higher law" Such a
trial, in State whence fugitive escapes, would
not answer their purpose.
Mr.. ADAMS does not want its unconditional
repeal, because it would revive the act of 1893,
which he regards "quite as subversve of the
principles of liberty as this, and only less odous,
because it is less Indignantly effective in its de-
tails" The repeal of both would not repeal
the constitutional stipulation, which his father
once denounced as an engagement positively
Sinai" The engagement "to render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesars" would still be there
Hence he proposes as ga choice of evils" to
submit the fugitive to examination Of a legal
tribunal, to the ordinary laws of evidence, and
to the verdict of twelve good men and true"
The probabilities of the efficacy of such
provision, aside from the positive hostility and
bad faith which exists at the North, may be seer
in the difficulties frequently encounterd there il
obtaining juries whose consciences" are no,
opposed to capital punishment. And yet IT,,
anti-capital punishment sentiment is but spec
on the face of public opinion there, compared
with the overshadowing prevalence of the anti
slavery sentiment.
| We have italicised the passage in Mr. ADAMS
letter, recommending a process by which theil
assaults upon the law should be conducted, anc
some other passages.
The Tribune's article, it will be rccolected
treats the law as already practically nullifed'
and imperative" and thus plumes itself upor
the engrossment by the North of oil the prac
teal benefits of the compromise. In the plen
tude of its sectional pride and joy, it counts
over its clear gains" and gloats " with proud
satisfaction" on the rich harvest" it has made
in securing the Mexican territories to free
DOM" where otherwise slaves would now be
washing the golden sands of California But
in the event that the federal power should be
able to breathe sufficient vitality into the law
to enable it to rear lis hideous features" the
trial by jury is threatened in the following para
graph, which we re-quote:
1.-THE law of 1850 must turn out to be an in
operative enactment. Indeed, it is practically
nullified already, when II COSTS IA in the case Of
Sims, five thousand dollars to catch and return
n ainglo ruuawov Rut f II ia to he ANYTHING