The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-08-30
VIRGINIA DEMOCRACY.

am, sir, yours, truly,
| A PLYMOUTH NoNCoNFoRMIsT
VIRGINIA DEMOCRACY.
We find the following in the Richmond Ez
ansiiser, the organ of Senator Hunter.
SLAVE TRADE
| There are indications in the newspaper pres
of some interest in the Southern mind, on tn,
subject of the Slave Trade with Africa Thi
is the natural consequence of our position a.
slave-owners, and sa symptom ofconvalescence
| a hopeful sign that the mind and morals of the
| South, which were infected with Abolition sen
timents, begin to recover from the disease
What / write is designed rather to suggest q
theme, and draw attention to a matter, thar
as a settled and consistent view of the subject
To gaze steadily and soar safely in this region
requires the unblenching eye and strong pinior
of the eagle.
The April number of the Edinburgh Reuiet
for this year, in an article about Slavery in the
United States, contains as fair and liberal q
view of the position in which shareholders are
supposed to stand, as we are likely to get from
any part of Christendom outside of the slave
States themselves. 1t would be we'll for every
Pro-Slavery man to read that article; for if il
had no other good effect, it might suggest to all
such the monstrous contradiction involved in
our conduct. We send fleets to the African
coast to suppress the trade there, but we work
ourelves into a rage, and pretend that we will
fight the Yankees, if they use the power of the
Federal Government to suppress it herei We
send five or ten thousand slaves annually from
Virginia to better market in our more south
ern States, whilst we keep squadron on the
coast to prevent the Prince of Ashantee or King
of Dahomey from doing the same with his
slaves, whom he sometimes massacres to pro-
vide supply of skulls, which are the fashion
able material for paving in that region.
The man who freights vessel with slaves
on the African coast, buys savages-beasts-
and transports them to, and sells them in, a
civilized country, inhabited by Christian plant.
ers. Where is the harms Surely, not to the
grovelling creatures who eat vermin and wor-
ship them in Africa and who are undoubtedly
transported to milder slavery than that from
which they are taken. Shall it be piracy for a
man to engage in importing barbarians, and by
subduing their savage natures, and teaching
them to labor, elevate them in the scale of
humanity, contributing at the same time, by
the fruits of their labor, (say sugar and cotton
to the comfort and improvement of the world Z?
If so, what punishment should be inflicted
upon him who loaded the Creole at Richmond
for New Orleans
The Creole's cargo consisted of men and wo-
men, who, though lowest in society, had been
raised in civilized coantry-possibly by Chris
ton masters and mistresses. Some of them had
probably known what it was to have a white
washed cabin, with Towering vines about it,
with garden patch attached, and with children
playing around-to which, in time of sickness,
the revered Virginian mistress would come
and in which, if there was no other provision
for spiritual peace, the children of the noble
matron would sometimes raise the Christian
hymn, or read a chapter from inspiration. The
cargo of the African SLAYER consists of the most
degraded beings to be found on earth. Four
ifths of the population of Africa, along the
coasts where the trade prevails, are not only
enslaved, but they are the slaves of the most
debased, cruel, and bloody savages that the sun
shines upon-the masters themselves being the
slaves of vices and crimes so horrible that
humanity shudders to conceive of them. Pro-
mlscuous intercourse of sexes, incestuous con-
cubinage-murder itself is practiced as pas
time. To guzzle the hot blood of victim. to
tear and devour his smoking entrails before
they cool, is the luxury of Africans at home.
No mawkish morality, no dropsical philan.
thropy, ever has, or ever can, convince men of
superior race and humanity that they do
wrong in tanning such creatures. If chains and
the lash will answer, tits well but curbed, SUBJ
dued, they must be, as preliminary to any i'm.
provement whatever. They cannot be taught,
they cannot learn anything, without submission
on their part.
The most effective of the national troops in
Dahomey are Amazons. To these, Queen Vic.
toria has, of late, lovingly sent certain orna-
mental caps, turbans, or other head-gear. to
adorn their martial fronts She also sent AN
ambassador to her brother, the king of that
country, to explain to him the wickedness of
selling negroes, and to persuade him to abandon
that branch of trade The ambassador was
treated to show of HUMAN sACRIrIcEsIl Yet.
" the people of Dahomey and Ashantee are
considerably in advance of those on the
coast. africa and the american F7aq. Foote,
p. GA.
Observation-Disclosures let US face the music"
We are not bound to believe everything that
Gen. Washington believed. We are not bound
to liberate our slaves because he liberated his,
any more than we are bound to believe, as the
Know Nothings say he did, that the Union
is the paramount political good, or the primary
object of patriotic DESIRE"
Siave-holding and slave-trading are bound
up together. Measures for the abolition of the
slave trade necessarily involve the existence of
Slavery itself. MIR. Burke said long ago, and
SAID truly, In turning the matter over in my
mind, at that time and since, never was able
to consider the African trade upon a ground
disconnected with the employment of negroes
IN the West Indies, and distinct from their con.
dItion In the plantations wherein they serve.
conceived that the true origin of the trade
was not In the place it was begun at, but at
the place OF Its final destination. I therefore
was, and sill am, of opinion that the whole
work ought to be taken up together"
Louisa County, June, 1855.
The case of the Creole (which state in Subsistence.
rom memory occurred ten twelve years ago The
vesse mao on board more than hundred slaves and
on tae Passage me slaves rose upon captain and crew
murdered some Of them and compelled the shin 10 he
taken INTO port of the West Indies where they vere
ilDeraied Inc newspapers that a board of Corn
mssioners situng in England adudicate claims ba.
recently awarded compensation the owners of these
slaves. ~
a DICTATOR DEMANDED-The union of the
conservative elements in New York-of the
Hards, Silver Grays, and Americans-upon
some such man as Dickinson, can alone pre.
vent the formation of sectional parties, and the
probable subversion of the Republic. A man
fonder of blood would better suit the crisis
one who would not hesitate to take the law into
his hands, and, without Judge or Jury, hang
such men as Wilson & Co. to the first tree.
Now is the time for jackson. That man ap-
peared before his day. Our country, at his
advent, was filed with lawlowing and law
abiding Doorle Ho c<.-~ad L. I.,r., a., Al