Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-11-14
o. 0 III IN II nieate0..
For the Washington Sentinel.
A Man Sentenced to Death for importing
Negroes from Africa

MAN sentenced 10 Dcatn ior Importing
Negroes from Africa. Al
The recent trial and conviction of Captain
Smith at New York for engaging in the slave
trade, should set men, especially Americans,
to thinking on this mighty negro question.
To leave out of view the fact that our ances-
tors, until very recently, did this same thing
that it was for centuries recognized and reg
ular branch of commensurate it was ex-
tensively practised by good Christians and
pious men, and that it is even now in another
form extensively carried on between Mary
land and Texas, and Virginia and Arkansas;
beyond all this Inconsistency and contradict
ton, that should prompt inquiry and examina-
ton of this subject the bare announcement of
the startling fact that an American citizen is
abont to be put to death for bringing negroes
from Africa to America, is sufficient to arouse
the attention and excite the sympathieS ofevery
thinking and humane man in this Union.
What has this man done, that he should be
put to death? Is it crime that demands
blood for its expatiation? Is it even crime
at all? May it not be even virtue, y humane
and bene6cent action, but which ignorance or
misconcepton, or possibly fraud, and imposture
distorts into crime and wickedness? Are we
not possibly laboring under national delusion,
stimulated by the enemies of our system, our
Democratic institutions, our national progress
and which is driving US on to some fearful perilf
May we not, while blindly walking in paths
marked out for us by European writer's, jurists,
Legislators, &C., create artificial crimes with
real consequences, legal 6ctions, but like those
of Salem, with bloody penalties9 May we not
in short, in our punishment Of Captain Smith,
for transporting these negroes to America,
commit crime that posterity will pronounce
less defensible than the witch murders Of the
18th century. ~ q
| among others, for the following reasons:
]. No one can doubt moment that the three
| millions of negroes now in the South are inn
measurably and inexpressibly happier and
better off than any three millions of negroes
nom in Africa, or that ever existed in Africa.
| Is it possible, then, that those who brought
| their ancestors here committed crime in 30
| doing?
2. There is not now, nor has there ever been,
nor can there ever be white or caucasian labor
| ing population within the tropics. The negro
organization, on the contrary, with its millions
of sebacous glands all over its surface, acting
| as safety valves under vertical sun, is ex-
| actly adapted, and therefore especially de-
signed by the Almighty Creator for this labor.
In view, then, of human welfare, the abso-
lutte necessities for the products of the tropics
the requirements Of civilization, can those be
guilty of crime who place the negro there
who thus appropriates those beautiful and fer
tile regions to industry--to production-to
civilization--to the happiness and well being
Of humanity"
8. Can that be wrong, unnatural or criminal,
which, though they have caused an immeasura-
BILE amount of suffering, andprobably sacrificed
million of lives to accomplish it, the efforts
to put it down have not prevented the importa-
ton of one single negro? l
j. III. VAN. EVRIE.