The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-10-06
NO. 353.

the condition Of the slaves, and elsewhere he
says directly, that those erred who sought t.
discourage Slavery by diminishing the value OF
! slave produce. On page / IL be undertakes %
| fortify his theory by recent events in this coun
try
DAT no PERIOD he says was that trade
the domestic slave trade) 80 large as in thai
from 1880 to 1910, and the effects are seen in
comparative prices Of cotton
"CIops 1881 and 1882 average I0I6 1871
and 1912 average Z. The export OF negroes
declined between 1912 and 1850; and the con
sequence is, that cotton has maintained it,
price. With the closing Of the Southern mills
the trade is now growing again, rapidly, &c
With the closing Of Southern mills, the slave
trade is now growing rapidly and the conse.
quences will be seen in large decline in the
price of that important product of Southern
labor and land. The reader will now observe
that it was in the period from 1880 70 1910
that the tendency to emancipation disappear
cd that it was in that period that there was
the greatest enlargement of the domestic slave
trade, and the greatest decline in the price OF
cotton
Begging MIR. Carey's pardon, his statistics
/ show no such thing And had they contained
the whole story, they woold have showed the
reverse of 1t. He only gives tine prices Of cot
ton, lO19C from lS3l-'2-and 7e. In 1912.
| but the rage OF cotton speculation was in the
| Intervening period, of which the prices of Cot.
ton are not given. Had he told his readers
! that in this period the price of cotton rose TO
i4e., and that the price Of negroes and the
briskness of the traffic increased accordingly,
| till, as the Virginia Times said the sales from
that State, in twelve months, 1885, amount
ed to twenty-four millions OF dollars it would
have enabled them to determine whether the
greatest enlargement of the slave trade" was
coincident with the decline of cotton" In.
disputably, the reverse was the fact. Very
naturally, indeed, decline in cotton was the
consequence of the unavoidable reaction, and
the increased culture of the article. But this
(even by MIR. C.'s own figures) came afterwards.
He reverses the order of events, and of cause
and effect. The slave trade was not enlarged
because cotton declined, nor simultaneously
tcuh that decline On the contrary, the rice
of cotton raised the price Of negroes and slim
ulated the slave trade. The over traffic and over
production brought cotton down again. But
Mr.. Carey would have il believed, that when
cotton is low the slave traffic increases 30 that
the true remedy for the slave trade is high
price for cotton, produced by a protective ia
riff
| But this is not the only instance in which
| Mr. Carey accounts for the existence or in
| crease OF Slavery or the slave trade, by the
alleged operation Of causes which, on an ex-
animation of dates, will be found to have come
into existence after the phenomena they are
supposed to have produced Thus, the existence
Of Slavery in our American colonies NOW
States which commenced in 1920, is accounted
for by the operation of parliamentary legsla
ton, discouragng American manufactures,
commencing according to Mr.. Carey, in 1910,
ninety years afterwards, when the country was
overrun with slaves and the system firmly
establshed.-(P. 95.)
As tor Mr., C's theory, that the increased
demand and high prices Of slave products tend
to amelorate the condition Of the slave, its
falsity not only appears by q common sense
view of the case, but by the uniform testimony
of fugitives from slavery who oil agree that
the rise Of sugar and cotton are the dread and
terror Of the slaves in the planting States who,
ut such seasons, are over-tasked and driven
with unwonted rigor; and Of the slaves In the
siave-gro,c,ng states, vino ars ther in the
briskest demand for the Southern market.
Another doctrine of Mr.. Carey is stated as
follows: IL is not Slavery that produces er
, haustion of the soil but exhaustion Of the Sorl
J that causes slavery 10 eoatinue."-(P. 1867 The
practical application Of this | understand to
be- that the soil Of the Southern States must be
? improved first, and liberty will come in con-
sequence; for MIR. C.. adds: "Tbe people of
England rose from slavery to freedom AS their
soil was improvednf He fortfes his position
by an extract from Professor Johnson, in his
Notes on North America to show that pre-
clsely the same exhaustion is visible in the
Northern States" So that the contrast com
monty visible to Southern ewes, in sailing up
the Ohio river and visiting New England, is
all proved TO be an illusion, an optical decep-
ton, not yet explained. Among the specimens
of Northern exhaustion and decay adduced,
are Dutchess county, New York, the region
about Albany, &c, where the wheat crop has
greatly decreat cd The account leaves the
reader to infer that property is sadly declining
there-rare news to the proprletors, as well rs
to any one who knew the localities forty years
ago, las ! did MIR. Editor,) and who has re-
Gently visited them What would Mr. c. say,
if told that the wealth Of that region had been
quadrupled in that time, the population ad
vancing, with great improvement in the APP
pearance Of the farms and dwellings, and in
the convenienccs and eleganccs Of life? Were
it otherwise, the fact would sadly conflict with
Mr. Carey g favorite and truly beautiful maxim,
that the plough the loom, and the anvil, should
20 together; for marked improvement in
that respect has taken place there. How de-
ceptive are statistical tables if incomplete or
if hastily used The decline of the wheat
culture was veritable enough But tho hocks
of sheep in Duchess county, 20, should have
been counted by MIR Carey Perhaps the in
creased culture of wool would have furnished
him with quite az available m argument for
his favorite protective" policy as anything
be has culIed from the history Of Slavery and
the slave trade There could have been no
danger of his Juggling in anything more far
fetched and fanciful IL need not be denied
that Northern culture might be improved; but
an attempt to put it on level with that Of the
slave States was outrageous. so the policy OF
| the British Government in disconragpg our
colonial manufactures, may have aggravated
the inyeteracy Of our slave system. But no
sound philosophy or sober statistics will war
rant the conclusion that the American slave
holder is guiltless, and that tho whole or the
chief blame lies ON Great Britain. have no
quarrel with MIR. Careys dark dark picture OF
the selfish narrow, falsely named patriotic
policy Of that oppressive Government, and the
murderous suicidal effects OF that policy. A
better textbook from which to preach against
all legalzcd monopolies and class legislations
cannot easily be found. In this use of it
especially as coming from an opponent Of free
trade--the work may DO regarded of great
value but II utterly fails in its professed ex-
pose and profsred remedy Of chattel slavery 10
America. On that sgbject at least Mr.. Carey
has more to learn from the "fsnatical Abo
ltionists" than he has been able to teach them.
Ii is humilisting to find an elaborate writer
on political economy coolly assuming that man
is legitimate subject Of commerce. and thence
maintaining that the proper remedy for the
slave trade Il such an increased market value
Of the man, at home, as shall render his export
alton Improbable 295)-complsining that
"the act of emancipation" 10y the British
Government) was "a great interference with