Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-10-05

only seeks to revive and increase her own ca
pacity TO produce tropical productions, but TO
diminish and destroy the capacity of those who
have SO far outstripped her in consequence OF
her error. In pursuit of the former, she has
cast her eyes to her East India possessions-to
central and eastern Africa-with the view Of
establishing colonies there, and even to restore,
substantially, the slave trade itself, under the
| specious name of transporting free laborers
| from Africa to her West India possessions, in
order, II possible, to compete successfully with
| those who have refused to follow her suicidal
policy. But these all afford but uncertain and
distant hopes of recovering her lost superiority.
| Her main reliance is on the other alternative
to cripple or destroy the productions of her
successful rivals. There is but one way by
which it can be DONE and that is by aboishing
African slavery throughout this continent and
that she openly avows to be the constant OBJ
ject of her policy and exertions. 1t matters
not how or from what motive, it may be done
whether it be by diplomacy, influence, or
force; by secret or open means; and whether
the motive be humane or selfish, without regard
to manner, means, or motive. The thing itself,
should it be accomplished, would put down all
rivalry, and give her the undisputed supremacy
in supplying her own wants and those of the
rest Of the world and thereby more than fully
retrieve what she has lost by her errors. 1t
would give her the monopoly of tropical pro-
auctions, which | shall next proceed to show.
What would be the consequence if this OBJ
| ject of her unceasing solcitude and exertions
should be effected by the abolition of negro sla-
very throughout this continent, some idea may
be formed from the immense dimnution of pro
auctions, as has been shown, which has fol-
lowed abolition in her West India possessions.
But, as great as that has been, it is nothing
compared to what would be the effect if she
should succeed in abolishing slavery in the
United States, Cuba, Brazil, and throughout
this continent. The experiment in her own
colonies was made under the most favorable
circumstances. II was brought about gradually
and peaceably by the steady and firm opera
ton of the parent country, armed with COM
plete power to prevent or crush at once all in
surrectionary movements on the part of the ne
groes, and able and disposed to maintain to the
full the political and social ascendency of the
former masters over their former slaves. 1t is
not at all wonderful that the change of the re-
lations OF master and slave took place, under
such circumstances, without violence and blood
shed, and that order and peace should have
been since preserved Very different would be
the result Of abolition, should it be effected by
her influence and exertions in the possessions
of other countries on this continent-and espe-
cially in the United States, Cuba and Brazil,
the great cultivators of the principal tropical
products Of America. To form correct con-
cepton of what would be the result with them,
we must look, not to Jamaica, but to st. Do
mingo, for example. The change would be
followed by unforgiving hate between the two
races, and end in bloody and deadly struggle
between them for the superiority. One or the
other would have to be subjugated, extirpated,
or expelled; and desolation would overspread
their territories, as in st. Domingo from which
it would take centuries to recover The end
would be, that the superiority in cultiyating the
great tropical staples would be transferred from
them to the British tropical possessions.
They are of vast extent, and those beyond
the Cape of Good Hope possessed of an unlim-
tied amount of labor, standing ready, by the
aid of British capital, to supply the deficit which
would be occasioned by destroying the tropical
productions of the United States, Cuba, Brazil,
and other countries cultivated by slave labor
on this continent, so soon as the increased price,
in consequence, would yield profit. 1t is the
successful competition of that labor which
keeps the prices of the great tropical staples so
low, as to prevent their cultivation with profit
in the possessions of Great Britain, by what she
is pleased to call free labor. fshe can destroy
its compositions, sho would have monopoly in
those productions She has all the means of
furnishing an unlimited supply; vast and fer
tile possessions in both Indies, boundless com
mand of capital and labor, and ample power
to suppress disturbances, and preserve order
throughout her wide domains.
it is unquestionable, that she regards the alb
clifton of slavery in Texas as a most important
step towards this great object ofpolicy, so much
the aim of her soiicitude and exertions; and
The defeat OF the annexation of Texas to our
Union as Indispensable to the abolition Of sla-
very there. She is too sagacious not to SEQ.
what fatal blow it would give to slavery in
the United States, and how certainly its aboli-
ton with would abolish it over the whole
continent and thereby give her monopoly in
the productions of the great tropical staples,
and the command of the commerce, navigation,
and manufactures of the world, with an estab-
lished naval aseendency and political prepon-
derance. To this continent the blow would be
calamitous beyond description. 1t would de.
stroy IN great measure, the cultivation and
production ofthe great tropical staples, amount
ing annually in value to nearly $500, 100000
the fund which stimulates and upholds almost
every other branch of its industry, commerce.
navigation and manufactures. The whole, by
their joint influence, are rapidly spreading pop
ulauon, wealth, improvement and civilization
over the whole continent, and vivifving, by
their overflow, the industry of Europe thereby
increasing its population, wealth, and advance
ment in the arts in power, and in civilization.
Such must be the result, should Great Brit
ain succeed in accomplishing the constant
object Of her desire and exertons--the aboli-
ton of negro slavery over this continent; and
towards the effecting of which, she regards the
defeat of the annexation of Texas to our Union
so important. Can it be possible that govern
ments SO enlightened and sagacious Us those of
France and the other great continental powers,
can be so blinded by the plea of philanthropy
as not to see what must inevitably follow, be |
her motive what it may, should she succeed in
her object? 1t is little short of mockery to
talk Of philanthropy, with the examples before
us ofthe effects ofaboishing negro slavery in her
own colonies, in St. Domingo, and the north
ern States of our Union, where statistical facts,
not to be shaken, prove that the freed negro,
after the experience of sixty years, is in q far
worse condition than in the other States, where