The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1856-11-27
From the Nsso Orleans Della.
SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE.

p From the beginning, the South has been
$ the victim OF compromises. One Of the
first Of these WAS incorporatedlin the Fed
eral Constitution in the shape Of a proyi-
) sion authorizing Congress, after the year
1908, to prohibit the introduction into the
United States of any class of persons which
it might deem proper to exclude. Experl-
ence soon proved that this, like the Mis-
souri,. and some other compromises that
. might be named, was a" jug handle" affair
all OH one side: The year designated came.
The Congress Of those days, like most Con-
crosses Of later period, were great respcctors
of compromises. The provision we have
referred to was general in its terms, aud
male no mention Uf slavery or tho slave
trade; hut Congress, having wise instinct
for compromises, WAS Mt no loss to discover
the specific Object covered by the general
phraseology of the provision. 1t did not
prohibit the importation of blubLer-eate s
from Nova Zcmbla or cannibas from New
Zealand-wl,icl it might have done-tut
it passed severe laws against the introduc-
ton Of the natives of Guinea, Congo and
Dahomey, for labor in the Southern Statcs
of the Union.
Meantime, though slavery had existed
in all the original Northern States, they
had been very protitably abol,shing it,
mainly by selling their slaves at high prices
to those who could more usetully employ
them in the cultivation of Southern pro.
ducts, until it had little more than nomi-
nal existence in any of them. This pro-
hlbltion, therefore, did not affect those
States; their climate, soil, and the nature
OF their commercial relations called for 4,
different kind Of labor; and this they
abundantly got by the unrestricted ilnm-
grafton of white laborers in every depart
ment of industry, which has flowed into
them continuously from that day to this
But not so with the South from that time
to the present she has been stinted in her
labor; the cultivation of her great staples
was not adapted to white labor, and the
ingress of slave labor being inhibited, she
has been set back in material development
in the proportion of excess of immigration
into the North over what it has been into
the South. This appears to us plain
economical proposition; for labor is wealth,
aud the amount of labor, cGteris pariJus,
depends upon the number of laborers.
How far, then, has the South been thus
set back i'll material prosperity? We will
see. III 1854, the number of persons Of
foreign birth i'll the free States was l, $780,
397 i'll the slave States, 376.2O5, showing
the relative Increase of tho North and
South with regard to- labor to be as one
fifth to four-ttths. just in that proportion,
been detrmentally affected by the prol,iLi-
ton of the slave trade, or the exclusion Of
that class of laborers demanded by her in.
stitutioms, her climate and the nature Of
her products. 1t is no wonder, in view of
this fact, that in the North the wilderness has
been subdued, cities have grown up, canals
have been dug, railroads have been built,
and every branch of industry has lecn
stimulated into uneXampled activity, while
in all these respects the South has been
comparatively stationary. Where is the
explanation Of this state Of things, hut in
the fact, that the latter has been,.siinted in
labor by unequal ,lse;shseiith, Willie 40
s,-.--srv--sruI ,fIe full benefit of tie law
of supply and demand?
have more tLsn al.r:z al. .n...r., CIV
:, political injustice done the South in relu-
cling her basis Of representation, by allow
ing but three. .ffllis of her laboring popula-
ton to enter into the apportionment, while
no such reduction was imposed upon the
North; but her inequality, in an econom-
ical and industrial prnt Of view, III conse-
quence of the restriction to which her la
Dor has been subjected, has not been less
in fact and has been equally obvious in re-
suits.
AS to the morality of the slave trade.
tina. presents no more difficulty than the
question Of slavery itself. One is involved
in the other. Slavery must be defended in
its integrity-in its origin, in its sustenia-
tion, in its perpetuity-or its defence should
he abandoned We can see no other
ground for logical and candid mind
Ii it was wrong i'll its origin, it is wrong in
its perpetuation. But if it was right, ON
the contrary, to introduce it-if good con-
sequences TO both white and black, and to
the material interests of the country, have
flowed from its intrGduction-tl,en it is Just
and bencfcent to nourish, invigorate and
perpetnate it. If the latter is tho correct
view, as it must be to make slavery de-
fensible, the African slave ceases to he a
question of morality, and becomes one
solely Of expediency; and, therefore, the
South has a right to an increase of slave
labor as long as there is an increasing de-
,nand for.it, just as the North has had a
right to admit AN influx of free laborers 10
supply her industrial wants. but the
South. has been denied the enjoyment of
this right Her peculiar labor system has
not had room for healthy development, and
the scarcity of slave labor, as tho editor of
the. Charleston Standard well observes in a
J. series OF able articles, has been one of the
great ;esils Of slavery at the South, though
mo means a necessary evil. Its scarcity
sshas spfeyented its diffusion, while, if more
SabpnJant, every white man of tile South,
tall Industrious and provident, might
haysyheid the relation of STAKEHOLDER. As
:ssit sis sah6re are too many Shareholders
the. South; there are too many large
sslaYeho ldess;sa the institution needs to
sba stabiiitated tby''a diffusion amongst a
greater. number. The measure Of Slave
gsxepap ptiSn; on which we have heretofore
zgssdWslts would go far towards atfording a
ytttt no riofsop nDn,,