The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-08-31
From the Spartansburg Express.
NEGRO MECHANICs-THE REMEDY

From the Spartansburg Express.
NEGRO MECHANICS REMEDY
We find in the Charleston Standard of II.
14th inst. contribution, backed by an ALI.
editorial under the above caption. which dis
cusses the propriety of dispensing with the se,.
vices of slave labor in the mechanical arts. i,
order to make room for foreign and Northern
white mechanics who are flooding the Southern
States.
The Standard argues therefore, that because
" there is within our limits party who neces
sarily, from feeling and in practice, must Oppose
the slave institution, we have arrived al a
point when the policy Of our course may Be
best determined
"The nucleus of free labor that is SLOWLY
forming upon our Southern seaboard NAV grad.
ually remove the institution to the farther
West; and if it is ultimately our purpose 10
abandon Slavery, it is only necessary to Weld
to the gentle pressure of the opposition, and in
a few years. as the forests of the West are opep.
ed to us, we May possibly wash our hands Of
the wrongs 80 literally charged upon us and
look upon the crimes of other people with the
same complacency which lends so inefabe
charm to the face of New England"
The Express comments as follows upon Tho
foregoing extract from the Standard.
1--WE have no doubt that Northern and for
eigu mechanics, who have read the editors
and the communication referred to, will sustain
the views ineulcated, and regard the STANDARD
as an advocate for the prohibition of mechaui.
cal slave labor-or, at least, willing to yield
TO tho gentle pressure of the opposition
awe agree with the Standard, that there
are white mon who cannot afford TO buy
slave . and hence, within our own limits,
rivalry is forming between free and slave IA
bor' But we hardly supposed that a South
Carolina Journal, especially one published in
Charleston, would step forward as a champion
for Northern and foreign mechanics, who ore
more than willing to do injury to slave owners
and drive from the bench, the anvil, the trogel
and the needle, species of property which Is
regarded the most valuable In those depart
ments, and which is the main, if not entire
support of large number of widows and or.
phans throughout the State"
The Express goes on to condemn the suggo5.
ton, which by the way is only hinted of with
drawing negroes from mechanical operations
and supposes that the writer must be North
ern man, or "Southern man with Northern
principles" The Express further quotes from
the Standard, as follows;
Finally, the Standard says:
$50 long as we have houses to build boats
to navigate, lands to clear and cultivate, ral.
roads to construct, and one and Thousand
domestic Offices for which the present number
of our laboring population is not sufficient, We
must expect the enterprising laborers from
other sections to come amongst US; and it is
right that they should come and if we expect
to neutralizs their character, and make then
constituents of our institutions, we must give
them slaves, and upon such terms as that Il
will be their interest to receive them. VIII
out this they will follow their interests-th,y
must follow their interests-and it is but right
that they should follow their interests. We
have vast domains of vacant territory all
around US; we have in our rivers, mines, and
forests, illimitable wealth, which we have no.
the time now to touch upon. We have DO
right to perpetually seclude this wealth from
those whom God has vested with the enter.
prise to grasp it. To admit them, however
and not admit within our midst an interest IN
opposition to our institutions, we must give
them slaves. Under present circumstances
slaves can never be permanently cheaper than
they are. The demand for them increases
must look for sources of supply or We must
submit our interests to the inevitable tonden.
oies around us.n
The idea of giving slaves to Northern me-
ohsnics as an inducement to remove South, n
sheer nonsense.
We arc glad to witness this evidence Of
the natural and inherent repugnanco between
free and slave labor. May they never be rec
onciled and whatever policy be adopted BY
the South, good must result. If the intrOduo-
ton of free laborers is encouraged, it is well
If the slaves are universally employed in me-
ohanicaI occupations, it will be better, since
they will thereby be fitted for freedom, and
prepared to take care of themselves.
The Express dislikes mechanics from the
North, who, it seems, are less prone to conquer
their prejudices" against Slavery than the
merchant class. The latter arc welcomed in
those Aattering terms: G.
The intelligent mercantile class, who come
among US from the North and settle, are gen.
orally valuable acquisitions TO society, and every
way qualified TO sustain our institution, Dus
the mechanics, most Of them, are pests to socie,
ty, dangerous among the slave population, and
ever ready to form combinations against the
interest of the STAKEHOLDER, against the laws Oh
the country, and against the peace of the Com.
these are the characters tns'
the Standard invites to come among us to pres
out the mechanical slave labor Of the country
and, in order to buy them over, we are 'old
that we must glue them slaves and leave 9uf
native mechanics to do the best they can. lTa'
ly, q prophet is not without honor, save IN DIS
own country"