The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-10-06

We have found among our papers the fol-
lowing eloquent and judicous remarks on Sla-
very in this country, in the handwriting of
the gifted and lamented Legare, and lay them
before our readers exactly as they are in the
riginal-ChQrleSton Courier.
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.
This is great practical question, and needs
to be treated by statesmen, and not by sophis-
ters and fanatics.
1t is not res integrG, and it is not necessary
to discuss the justice or njustice, the fitness or
untitness of the institution in the abstract.
The true question is, What is to be the des-
tiny of this quarter of the world-what race
is to iahabit and possess it =! Shall it be given
up las to a great part of its surface) to barbar-
ism--its inevitable fate under the dominion of
the black race-or shall it continue to be pos
sessed by the most improving enterprislng
active and energetic breed of men that have
ever founded empires and peopled waste pla-
ces-by their English race, whose conquest
more extensive whose power more gigantic, and
whose government more perfect than that of
Rome, designate it az the fitting instrument, in
the hands of Providence, for the great work
of building up world-that English race, of
which the original stock has made itself the
wonder of mankind-a people entirely peculiar
in combining whatever is most dazzling in opu-
lence and power, with well-regulated liberty,
and mild and equal administration of law-the
most magnificent manifestations of the might
and the grandeur of civilized life that the
world, in any age of it has ever beheld Look
at Hayti and contrast it with New Holland
Does any man, who looks into the political
character and effects Of the cotton plant, doubt
for moment that Slavery in the South has
been and is great instrument of civilization
Would the miracles which the cotton trade has
wrought and is working, for the amelioration
of the condition of mankind in Europe, have
ever existed, had the negro of the South been
emancipated in the Revolution Would this
country have been what it isl
The truth is, that civilization is more ad-
vanced by physical causes than by moral ones
| mean, supposing in both cases social order
to be well established, and law administered
The steamengne is doing more for it than the
pulpit itself. So of cotton. 1t is raising the
standard of comfort, without which men are
doomed forever to be but half savage
The Roman conquests were attended with
dreadful evils millions of lives, it is said, were
sacrificed by C@'ar in his Gallic wars and so
of all the rest Does any one now doubt that
on the whole, the sword of Rome was a means
of improvement to the whole race that espe-
cially the spreading of9Christianity was hast
ened and facilitated by iti Would any phi
lanthrOpist, who did not assume that name to
make it odious, wish the history of the Roman
blotted out,
So of Greek art Without doubt it had
never existed--never at least, in such an ex-
traordinary perfection, without the institution
of Slavery. Suppose it were ascertained that,
by establishing an English colony at the spot
where Carthage once stood, at the end of some
centuries our race and institutions would spread
over the whole of that continent, hitherto held
to be doomed to everlasting silence and desola-
ton though the great result spoken of could
only be accomplished by DISCRIMINATING, rs the
red men Of this continent have been, or redu-
cling to bondage under the white man, the ne
gro, who is now the slave of his brother negro
and brother savage-would it be considered
inconsistent with humanity TO have, yea, and to
90 operate in producing, q change 80 full Of
splendid improvement, 80 favorable to the dig.
nifty of human nature, and even to the beauty
and glory of Gods CREATION
Look at the state of South America and
compare it with the northern part Of the Con-
tinent.
Therefore | have always thought that the
slave trade, inhuman, Internal as it was, had
not been without its mpensations--(c certainly
not enough to justify any one in taking part
in continuing it for so much evident and now
known evil ought not to be done that good
might come of it)-but that considered as a
great evil, it was much more 30 to this CONT
nent than to Africa.
In short, Slavery is an evil except under pc
culiar circumstances, generally speaking GER
tainly-and everything shows it here--but not
such an evil as calls for violent and still less
destructive, ueasures to arrest it,