Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-01-21
A NEW SCHEME.

The Shareholders are determined at all hazards
TO be rid Of the free negroes and their genius taxes
itself very severely to do il at the expense of the
hated and the banished or Mt least at the EXPENSE
of somebody else than themselves. The Coloniza-
tlon Society was a crafty and we'll laid device, to
saddle the expense of their Janisbmcnt upon The
gulls of the North, first, through their bencyoenco
as an emancipation and a missionary scheme. and
second by appeal to their prejudices, as a means
Of getting rid of the "mggers." Sundry other
means have been also adopted such as selling
part Of the number to pay for the transportation of
the rest, and other like christian schemes But
unfortunately for southern genius as vet they have
all proved quite inadequate to the task assigned
them and the dangerous clement'-the hated
despised class-a prey everywhere to jeers ISLANDER
lawloss persecution, lawful kidnapping, christian
banishment and colonzation-in spite of all these
they are here yet, and more numerous than ever
before and more hated and more plotted against
than over.
Well something evidently must be done and the
Tribune reports that the Richmond Examiner has
come to the rescue with new plot here is its ac-
count of il.
Mr.. Grcely turns the enemys artillery upon
The Richmond Examiner has scheme for the
removal of the free negroes from Virginia TO Lho-
ria or elsewhere, which bids fair to be successful,
If the injustice and barbarism of the Old Dominion
are equal to its enforcement The writer suggests
that the free negroes between the ages Of fifteen
and twenty-one be taxed five dollars per head per
annum, and those above twenty-oue, at the rate Of
ten dollars-of course in addition to any property
tax TO which they are now subject lie estimates
that there are now $1,000 free negroes in Virginia
Of whom Al $50 are Of the taxable age above speci
fed. OF these, 1912 he supposes to be under
twenty-one years old and AZ five dollars per head
they would raise revenue of Sjl $50. The re-
naming 40,93S at ten dollars per head, would pro-
duce an annual income of $l0G,3S0, which sum
added to the foregoing, gives aggregate Of l60
$40 for the first year The sum together with an
amount in the State Treasury already appropriated
to the object, would remove about 10000 free ne
groes somewhere, perhaps to Liberia. Every
failure to pay the tax is to be followed by the sale
Of the negro for limited time, until he works out
the tax, at wages ranging from ten TO twenty-five
cents per day. The writer frankly says that he is
not actuated so much by any love he has for the
negro race as by regard for the welfare ofthe whites
No doubt these important State Rights of uyidious
taxation and sale of the poor, are fully secured by
the resolutions Of '9S and 90
But the foregoing philantbropic scheme for "gct-
ting rid of the free negroes" has its uses since it
is suggestive Of one equally feasible for another
end. Why cannot the people of Virginia apply
the same principal Of taxation to the removal Of
slavery? Slavery is an eyil-a nuisance, and il is
therefore legitimate subject of taxation as such.
There would be no cruelty or injustice in taxing
the owners Of slaves with a view to raise revenue
for the removal OF slavery. But the taxing of free
negroes as a means of their rcmoyn is unjust and
cruel. Free negroes are not nuisance, though
their ignorance and vice doubtless arc, and to tax
them in order to obtain the means of their educa-
tion and improvement would lie very proper