New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-11-07
THE sLAyE-TnADE IN OUR COURTS.

| THE SLAvE-ItADE IN OCH COURTS.
The United States Circuit Court, before Judge
Nelson, is occupied with case of slave trade pi-
rscy, the proceedings in which are this morning
reported in our columns. James Smith, late
captain of the brig Julia Moulton, of New-York,
is indicted for having, on the FIRST Of Nay pratt
caly and forcibly confined and detained five hun.
bred negroes on board that vessel. for the pur-
pose Of making slaves of them, said negroes not
having been held to service by the laws Of either
the States or Territories Of the United States,
and the said vessel being nsvigated for aud on
behalf Of, citizen, or citizens, of the Ualted
States. The punishment, on conviction for this
crime, is death.
The enlightened and benign minis of this
country must marvel at the law which draws the
distinction between the foreign and domesti,
slave-trade, making the one punishable with
death, and the other the highest pursuit of the
"impersonation of the high-bOrn aristocrat."
This Captain Of the Julia Mouton will, let US
suppose, be hanged, if convicted, for simply doing
what ia openly advocated by some southern poll.
| tcisns az right of the South-the right of get
tire negroes direct from Africa st 800 apiece in
stead Of paying the dealers in the intern, trade
$1,000. Well may they demonstrate against the
monopoly Of the slave breeding States, and the
oppression, if Slavery be allowed to exist, Of re-
strictipg the blessing to the propagation of the
negro race in this countryside slow for Cauci-
sian avarice and cruelty and afording an article
too dear for the possession of the vast majority Of
the Southern people, not one 10 twenty of whom
can now be slave-owners, through sheer poverty.
The tendencies of the American people must
either be one way or the other-tO restrict
Slavery 80 that il die out, or to throw wide open
our ports to it direct with Africa-the more
especially as the "horrors of the middle pass
cage are, according to the author of Thirty
Years of the Slave Trade" fiction, AMI the
transfer Of the teeming myriads not connected
with any increased cruelty over their normal
condition. 1t may occur to some that the citi-
zens of the South should not feel compluented
by the parade of such facts that they treat their
slaves in fact better than the cannibals of the in
terior of Africa; but as they pride themselves
upon this through their chief political organs, we
feel at liberty to mention the circumstance
as sad evidence of how bunted the perceptions
of whole people may become on the simplest
details Of the moral law. 1t used TO be consid-
cred a matter of course that the greater freedom
of this country rendered comparisons on the rela-
tive effects of our political system even with
those of European Governments quite necessary
and not complimental, the gain being so vastly in
our favor; but the desperate mode Of defense re-
n I'll, ~,
to vsuIt human bondage in this country because
the masters do not literally sacrifice the slaves to
internal gods and eat their carcases at grand fes
tivals. We willingly award to the South the en-
tire benefit of such superiority, without altering
our opinion Of Slavery as the sum of all iniqu-
ties, and without seeing the abstract justice OF
hanging Capt. Smith for dealing in African mig
gers, while the judges and Governors, who only
sell their own mulatto children or brothers, are
looked up to as models Of every social virtue.