The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-11-04

rogatOry zeal for Slavery, to atone for the accl
dent of having been born north of Mason ant
DixOn's line.
INDICATIONS OF PROGRESS IN THE SOUTH
EMANCIPATION WHO ARE TO EFFECT TT
We find the following paragraph in our
Southern exchanges, and hail the intelligence
it conveys as sign Of progress:
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CONGRESS The
Southern Central Agricultural Society Of
Georgia has issued address, inviting the
cultlvators of the soil in every section and dis
trict of the State, TO send delegates to Macon
on the Goth day of October next, for the pur-
pose OF adopting measures preliminary to the
assembling of an Agricultural Congress of the
slayehOldmg States, at such time and place as
may be deemed most acceptable to the States
to be represented in it. The chief objects OF
the Congress will be to adopt measures to inn
prove the present system of agriculture to de-
yelOp the resources and combine the energies
OF the slayehOldng States, so as to increase
their wealth, power, and dignity, as members
OF the COnfederacy to fOrtify public opinion
within the borders of the slavehOding States,
IN antagonism to that without; to enforce the
/ growing sentiment that the children Of the
South shall be reared and educated at home,
instead OF abroad to foster scientific pursuits,
promote the mechanic arts, and aid in estab-
fishing Il system of common schools to assist
/ in bringing the South i'll direct commercial in
tercoursc with distant countries and to 'cul-
tlyate the aptitudes of the negro race for civil
lzation, and consequently Christanity-so that
by the time that slavery shall have fulfilled its
benetcent mission in these States a system
may be authorized by the social condition of
that race here, to relieve it from its present
servltude without sinking 10 to- the condition
of the free negroes Of the North and West In
dies y
"IO euhiuate the aptifudeS Of tie negro race
for civilization, and consequently Christianity
so that, by the time Slavery shall have fulfilled
its benefcent mission in these States, a system
mag be authorized by the social condition of that
race here 10 reieve 1t from 1t, present serU'tude,
without sinking it to the condition of the free
negroes of the North and the West Indies y
this is openly announced as one of the leading
objects of the Southern Agricultural Congress.
We are not disposed to quarrel about the par
ticular terms used. What interests and glad
dens us is that i'll IA call for a General Conven-
ton, emanating from one of the most Pro-Sla-
recognised as temporary system and Free
dom as the natural and permanent condition
of the negro race, for which it is to he qualified
by the cultivation Of its aptitudes for civiliza-
I;np md Init IN.
is openly ayowed as an ultimate end 1t is true,
the call assumes that Slavery has u benefcent
mission, and that it is a good, compared with
such freedom as the blacks of the North and
the WGt Indies enjoy; but these are errors
that will be corrected, and do not change the
fact that Emancipation, at some time, under
some circumstances, is here openly proposed.
We do not recollect that any such avoval
has been made since the commend cement Of the
present Anti-Slavery excitement. There have
been local Anti-Slavery movements in Della
ware and Kentucky, but no movements which
indicated II disposition on the part of the South
generally to contemplate Emancipation as an
ultimate fact to be brought about by system
attic effort. The position of the South has been
uniformly and entirely antagonlstical to the
views of Anti.Savery men. 1t has admitted
nothing conceded nothing; but contendcd for
Slavery as if it were system to be perpetuated
indefinitely. Now it is openly admitted in
public paper issuing in the heart of II State
which lately in It's apparent zeal for Slavery,
seemed willing to 60 all lengths against the
Federal Government that the institution il
after all transient one and that provision
should be made gradually for a new order of
things
1t has been supposed 10y some that the
Agitation on the subject of Slavery Extension,
by exciting the sectional spirit of the South,
and provoking it to take extreme ground in re-
lation to the general question Of Slavery, has
worked uniavorably for the cause of Emancipa-
ton in that region We dissent from this
opinion. That it checked the free expression
of Anti-Slayery opinions there, inflamed the
Pro-Slavery spirit and harmonized the South
in defence of the institution, is true but these
effects are only temporary. The merely sec
fionGi excitement il already passing away and
the sectional combination which menaced the
Union has been broken up. Meantime, the
question Of Slavery has been brought up for
adjudication at the bar Of the world. It's sup
portcrs have forced it into an arena where it
has been subjected to the test of the most scru-
timing investigation. Its opponents as well rs
advocates have been heard-the speeches of
try, North and South In the heat of the con-
hict, each party has claimed the victory and
the adhcrents of each have been fully satisfied
with the arguments OF their orators but men
are returning to their ordinary pursuits dream
ng no more of revolution and bloodshed and
the hour of reflection is coming. The Truth
which has been disseminated throughout the
South has not all fallen upon stony places
There are thousands Of its citizens, not deeply
Interested in the Slavery system, in whose
hearts the good seed has taken deep root, where
it will yet bring forth abundantly. There arc
thousands Interested in the system who, despite
the imaginary triumph of the hour, now feel in
their cool moments that the perpetuation of
such an abuse as that of Slavery is an impossi-
hility Thousands more have become convinced
that the struggle for the extension Of the system
will only cndanger far greater interests. The
fuct that Thomas II Benton, breasting such u
political combination rs few public men have
ever encountered, boldly declared Slavery an
evil and denounced the Fugitive Law in a
slave State, in the heart of the slaycholdng
district of that State, and yet was triumphant.
ly returned to Congress; and the fact that in
! five slavehodng States Free Democratic meet