New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-11-29
RETALIATION.

RETALIATION.
They have an act on the legislative anvil in
Ceorcia which We read over rather carefully when
i. was first reported, and resolved to say nothing
,bout until il should pass; but our cotempora-
res have con menced ventiatpg it, aud will doubt
less in time discover its true drift and necessary
consequences so We have no adequate motive for
further forbearance. 1t is substantially as follows
A Georgian goes before proper tribunal aud
swears that one OF bis negro slaves has run away
or dozen Of his slaves he case may be-th,t said
slave or slaves has made his way to some Free
State-say, New-York-and that he cannot recover
him: whereupon the tribunal gives him legal au-
tboriry to seize or attach any property belonging
or debt due in Georgia to any citizen o. sad Free
Stat, vh.rsn said fugitive is seorn to hare found
rfpge, ard pay himself the sworn value Of said
fugitive slave or slaves out of said property or
debt There are q good many clauses and much
yerbiage; but the gist Of the bill ID hore given.
This bill had not passed when we last heard
from Milledgeville, but was deemed likely to be-
come law. We sincerely hope it may, for these
reasons:
I Ii will strike damaging blow at our inflated
system of Mercantile Credit A Southern retailer
of dry goods rarely or never pays for them when
be buys them. He obtains them on credit Of the
iobbers of Ntw.York or Philadelphia, expecting to
psy FOR them out of the proceeds of their sales IN
less he can find some more advantageous invest
ment for the money. Should the crop Of his sec
ton fail, or the price of cotton rule low, or the
rivers fail to rse so that it can be hoated to mar
ket, he won't pay if he has invested his current
receipts in Government funds, or new house, or
a plantation, he probably won't 1t is gambling
bu,iness this supplyin ing the South with goods on
credit in good part extended to men who have
neither the property nor the established character
which could slcne eDtitle them to such credit 1t
pultples retail merchants enormously ard floods
the Planting States with goods which are neither
wanted nor paid for. We believe this Mercantile
Creoit curse both to tie North and to the South
and / all the advent of anything csculsted to break
il I'D. This foolish and unjust Georgia bill will
terd to do il; so we hope ii will pass.
III Our " merchant princes who job goods on
credit to Southern retailers are nearly all Union
savers, who think Slavery either q good thing in
itself or a necessary evil with which the North
has nothing to do. When one of them shall have
been called upon to pay, under this Georgia law,
for ten or fifteen slaves whom be never saw nor
heard of till he found them in his little BILL it may
possibly crawl through his hair that we hare some
thing to do with Slavery. 1t may even occur to
him that it s not exactly the right thing for man
TO sell bis halfbrother into the most brutal and
cruel bondage in the cane field or rice swamp
merely because that brother has Oneeighth Afri-
can blood in his veins
Ill This act will tend rapidly to diminish the
Slave population of the States adopting it, and so
TO weaken the impediments to emancipation Ev
cry slaveowDer who has a particularly vicious,
intractable, improbable negro, whom he cannot
sell snd does not wish to keep, will conttive to
have him run away, taking care only that he RUS
into some Free State. Thence he may go to Can
ada OF wherever else he may choose the master
will only track him TO some Free Sta.e' trading
with and trusting the South, and then proceed to
levy on the property or debts of citizens of said
State for his literally estimated value. So long IS
there .hsll be any property liable to attachment
under this law, so long We may be sure, will the
sa7t keep running away.
on credit sometimes get rich very fast, counting
their "bills pay able as securities or realized
profss and take to bulldog each his palace on the
Fifth Avenue or thereabouts ca the strength OF
such good fortune. By and by these Southern
promises fall due and are not paid not then nor
ever and the half built palace has to be sold and
tie mechanics are sonnet times losers. Let this
Georgia bill pass, and our merchants will estimate
THAR profits and build their palaces on the basis Of
tb.ir payments received rather than their goods
Add, which We believe the more eIcelleLt way.
In short the passage of this Georgia bill will
burst some perniciOus bubbles and do much more
tcod than its authors intend, while We do not per.
cevs that it is more unjust aud oppressive than
other mi asures which the uAnte nance Of Slavery
renders necessary. Let US have it enacted.
The Ndr- York Observer, the exponent OF cotton