The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-09-14
THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.

ern press condemn the proposition to revive
the slave trade, as Crash" ainjudicious," or
"imprudent;" but we have only met with one
or two journals from that quarter which ex-
press any hearty indignation at the idea. The
New Orleans Della, of recent date, has an
article on the subject, said TO be from the pen
of Dr.. Cartwright, q person who has acquired
some notoriety in that section by his absurd or
quizzioal speculations upon the characteristics
of the negro race He says:
| "The Richmond Enquirer is right in repro
batting in positive and decided manner, as it
has lately done, any agitation of the question
| of reviving the slave trade. The Government
under our Federal Union was the first to inter-
dict the trade, and it can never be revived
while our Union endures. No color ought to
be given to the suspicion that the South has
| any wish or intention, if it had the power, to
revive the slave trade. Unless driven to ex-
tremities by Northern fanaticism, there is not
the smallest probability that the South will
ever favor its revival.
In addition to the reasons given in the
! Enquirer Of the Goth ultimo, others might be
stated. The principal one is, that it would be
| injurious to our own negroes, however bone
| fetal it might be for the barbarous Africans
| to be brought in contact with civilized and
| Christian people. Charity begins at home !;
and, however much the Shreveport Dsmo-
crat may desire to benefit the black savagos
Of Africa by reviving the slave trade - a
measure it urges in the last number with great
power-a moments reflection will show that it
| cannot be done without injuring our own me-
groes, who have higher claims on us than any
| people elsewhere residing, whether civilized or
savage. The high price of slaves in the South
ern States is an inner wall of defence thrown
around our negroes, protecting them against
wanton abuses, if all other walls were broken
down.
After column of bogus philosophy, he
winds up a. follows:
But if Connecticut, Vermont, Massachu-
sets, Western New York, and the Ohio Re-
serve, will continue to be the dupes of Britsh
policy, and force upon the country dissolution
of the Union, it is but right and proper that
one OF the consequences of disunion, which
their blind fanaticism has disqualified them
from seeing, should be made known to them in
advsnce-and that is, that the South would be
compelled, in selfdefence, to revive the African
slave trade on grander and more extensive
scale than the world has ever witnessed. Cen
Felix Huston, in some able papers, has proved
beyond doubt, that negro slaves in war 1.-THE
more the BETTER are an clement Of invinoible
strength, and not of weakness, as aboltionists
vainly suppose. All our wars prove it. The
history of the Revolution proves that Washing
toms army in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
at the most gloomy period of the war, when the
Government had neither money nor credit was
kept together and supported with provisions
made while the war was going on, by Virginia
negroes; and that Burgoyne's captured army
was sent from the North into the heart of the
slaveholding region for safe keeping. Our pres
ent shareholders are not numerous enough to
contend against the combined armies of the
non-slaveholding States and Great Britain
The South could, and would if driven to the
wall, raise an army, if needs be, of any num-
Der Of men, in addition to her own citizen SOL
diery. LAKE BoRGNED
Il will be seen that this writer, whose views
are endorsed by the Delta, by the Richmond
Enquirer, and by tho Washington Union, JUS
tfes the slave trade, so far as it's morality is
concerned, and only disapproves it on the
ground of present expediency. The name of
Democracy, thus abused and prostituted has
deservedly become contemptuous byword in
the mouths Of the moro honest and candid des-
pots of the Old World. The article from which
in the Washington Union of last Saturday, for
its wisdom and justice, by the following prefa-
tory remarks:
awe have now to call the attention of tho
reader to q very remarkable communication,
taken from the New Orleans Delta on the sub
Ject of the revival Of the african sIaUe trade
al alternative which, however strongly and
vehemently rejected by the patriotic statesmen
of the South, now begins to acquire significance
from the savage violence and lnhuman threats
of the fanatics of the free States This article
is from the prolific pen Of the venerable Dr..
Cartwright, of New Orleans, whose name alone
is a sufficient guarantee that the subject has
been well and faithfully treated. Dr. Cart
wright, when he wrote this communication,
was rusticating On the banks of Lake Borgne,
the last American soil that hostile foot ever
trOd, and in full view Of the harbor in which
the British fleet lay in 18l4-'15. From the
spot where he wrote, the remnant of the Brit
ish army was seen flying in terror to its chip
ping, before the avengng sword of Andrew
Jackson. That army was nothing TO the army
of British hirelings and deluded fanatics
stealthily introduced into this country. They
have already conquered Connecticut, Vermont
and Massachusetts, and are as we have seen,
preparing to extend their aggressive policy all
to subdue and to degrade the South. The ar
gument of DR.. Cartwright is SO full, clear, and
convincing, that we give it to our readers with
out another word"
Can any Northern Democrat read these re-
marks of the official organ, cemmendatory of
the slave-trade, without feeling his cheeks tin
gle with shame9 We have seen it stated, and
we doubt not the fact that Northern merchants
and ship-owners, lost to all sense of honor, hu-
mainly, and justice, are engaged in the nefa-
rious traffic. But have journals, professedly
representing not merely the spurious Democra-
cy of the South, but that of the whole country,
grown base enough and bold enough to defend
openly the system?
All the recognised organs of what is called
the National Democracy now openly defend
Slavery as blessing and the only proper con-
dition of the laboring classes and, as will be
seen by the above extracts, they are beginning
stealthily to advocate the slave trade, which
our honest and freedom-loyiDg ancestors brand
ed as piracy. When they openly take this
ground, which they now do covertly, they
should have the honesty to take tho appropri
ate name of Pirates; and if they do not all
honest men should by common consent give it
to them. But knayes never speak of their
actions in the language which the law applies
to them. They reverse the maxim of MIR.
Snsgsby, and are always careful to put the
finest "point upon it," The fiendish traffic in
human flesh win be characterized as a scheme