Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-07-14
FRIDAY, JULY IA, 1854.
THE REVIVAL OF THE AFRICAN sLAvETRADE-
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION IN THE SOUTH.


Some time since the country was startled by
an article in the Southern Is. CO. Standard, Sc
riously recommending the re-establishment OF
the African Slave Trade, under the American
flag. The New York Tribune quoted it, as
revealing part Of q monstrous scheme of Sla-
very propagandism The Albany atlas ridi-
culed the apprehension Of the Tribune, intima
ting that the Federal Constitution is in the
way Of such project, even were it really en-
tertained. This by the by is a mistake. The
constitutional PROVISION on the subject prohib-
its the passage Of any act by Congress for the
abolition Of the foreign slave trade, prior to
the year one thousand eight hundred and
eight but it does not require it to pass an act
at all on the subject, after that period. The
act then passed by Congress may be repealed
any moment, without violating the Constitu-
ton. Oar Slavery propagating brethren, be-
ing strict constrnctionists and profound in con-
stitutional lore, of course are perfectly aware
Of this.
Northern people are under the impression
that this proposition to revive the African
slave trade is but one Of those wild vagaries
which ambitious Southern presses now and
then send up like rockets, just to excite pass
ing wonder, and then 60 out in darkness. The
Richmond Examiner, for example, was vastly
delighted, when it saw the good people startled
at it's recommendation to put Yankee school
masters upon their good behaviour, by occa-
sionally shooting one Of them. Most probably
it was Yankee school-master that taught the
young ideas Of this very editor to shoot and
we should not be surprised to be told that he
intends to send his son, if he have any, to
Yankee college: but what Of that? The thing
to be accomplished is q tremendous paragraph
that shall excite sensation. This he did,
when he shot the Yankee school-master with
goose quill, and he was satisfied.
But, this notion of reviving the African slave
trade seems to be something more than o sky
rocket. From indications in prominent South
ern journals, it would seem to be taking on tho
form of settled opinion among certain por-
tons Of our Southern brethren. And why not I?
If it be right to hold human beings as proper
ty, can it be wrong to transfer or exchange
them as property? If it be right and decent
to ship human beings at Norfolk, send them
to New Orleans and cell them in it's public
market, can it be wrong and indecent to ship
them from Dahomey, and sell them to the
planters Of Louisiana? On the assumption
that the slaves are property fit subjects for
merchandise, the prohibition Of the African
o1o k~o IA n IN Sfofo Of he
South in which labor is scarce. II gives an
unjust advantage to the exporting over the i'm
porting slave States. 1t taxes the shareholders
Of the Southern slave States, for the benefit of
the slave-growers Of tho Northern slave States.
II ia m act Of Intervention by Congress against
the equality Of the States, and in direct viola
ton Of the principle of Free Trade. If we, like
our philosophical contemporaries Of the Rich
mond Enquirer, verify believed that Slavery is
founded in Nature, and justified by Philoso-
ply, History, Experience, and Revelation, we
should contend as earnestly against tho act
prohibiting the importation Of slaves from
Africa, as against an act prohibiting their inn
portation into Kansas and Nebraska. We
should regard an opponent of the slave trade
just as fanatical as an opponent Of Slavery.
Take this ground of the Enquirer and the rest
Of our progressive brethren of the South, as
sume that slaves are property, it subjects for
merchandise, and the action of our Federal
Government against the African slave trade is
absurd, oppressive inhuman. We import
broadcloth from England, silk from France,
sugar from Cuba, now and then wild boasts
from the East Indies, and Congress sanctions
the trade but when we attempt to carry on a
trade with Africa in that article Of which she
has an excess, and we, q deficiency, wild men,
Congress loiiiciously interposes, tells us we are
pirates and, unless we stop, it will bang us !!
Think Of it Hang free-born American oiti-
zens for trading freely in articles of property,
Of merchandise, as recognised by our glorious
Constitution We say this is a gross violation
Of the Constitution, and basely inhuman.
These considerations have been pressing
upon the minds Of our Southern brethren.
They are an improbable people-not as though
they had already attained perfection, but they
are pressing forward towards the mark--in
modern phrase, agoing ahead Having left
behind the first principles, such as their fathers
entertained about Slavery, and, by philosophical
and ethnogrsphic researches, convinced them
selves that the world has been laboring under
most marvellous delusion, in the notion that
the system was against nature and reason,
thcir leading minds now boldly characterize
the popular notions about the slave trade, as
nonsensical,v . fanatcaln A new light, they
ssy, il beginning to dawn upon mankind; and,
in the Same vein we may say, that the time is
coming when the Kings Of Dahomey shall be
regarded as the great patrons Of civilization,
and Guinea and South Carolina be linked to-
gether by line Of ocean steamers, bearing ON
their broad bosoms the dusky SONS Of Africa,
70 tho embrace Of philanthropic republican
planters, anxious 70 Christianize them by the
beuefcent discipline Of the plantation Such