The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-24

taught
appreciate education and the comforts of civilized
life and this, we believe, may be effected only by
the introduction of manufactures. NY
experience at Granitevie has satisfied me- that un-
lagos, and some means Of employment afforded them
1t will be an utterly hopeless effort to undertake
educate them"
Here is the testimony of Governor Ham
mond, OF South Carolina, the great leader of
the multiplying party, now assuming the title Of
Democracy. We extract it from an address
before the South Carolina Institute, in 1850.
He Is speaking of that class of people, estima-
ted by William Gregg, Esq, of South Carolina,
in his address before the South Carolina Insti-
tute, 1851, to be Us ,000-one-half of the white
population of the State:
They obtain a precarious subsistence by occa-
siona jobs, by hunting. by fishing, by plundering
fields folds and too often by what is in its effects
far worse-tradng with slaves, and seducing them
to plumber for their benefit"
Hon. J. II. Lumpkin, of Georgia, speaking,
in 1852, upon the industrial regeneration of the
South, says:
1t is objected that these manufacturing estab-
lishments will become the hot-beds of crime y
But am by no means ready to concede that our
poor, degraded, halffcd, halfclothed and ignorant
population-without Sabbath schools or any other
kind of instruction, mental moral without any
just appreciation of character-will be injured by
giving them employment which will bring them IN
der the oversight Of employers who will inspire them
fare"
We close our quotations by an extract from
an address delivered, few weeks since, by
Hon. Z. Z. Clay, Jr., of Alabama
81 can show you, with sorrow, in the older por
tions of Alabama and in nv native county of Madi-
son, the sad memorials Of the artless ana exhaust
ing culture of cotton Our small planters after Ia
king Of thnrr lav
by rest, manures. or otherwise, are going further
west and south, in search of other virgin lands
which they may and will despoil and impoverish in
IKE manner. Our Weather planters, with greater
means, and no moro skill are buying out their poor
er neighbors, extending their plantations and add
ing to their slave force. The wealthy few, who are
able to live on smaller profits, and to give their
blasted fields some rest thus pushing off the many
who are merely independent OF the $50 600 COO an
nualy realized from the sales of the cotton crop of
Alabama nearly all not expended in supporting the
producers is reinvested in land and negroes.
" Thus the white population has decreased, and
the slave increased, almost parE possu, in several
counties in State. In 1925, Madison county cast
about 5000 votes; now she cannot cast exceeding
$500. In traversing that county, one will discover
mum erous farm houses the abode of Industrious
and intelligent freemen, occupied by slaves or
tenantless, deserted, and dilapidated; be will OBJ
serve fields, once fertile now unfenced, abandoned
and covered with these evil harbingers tail and
broomsedge; he will the moss growing on the
Wondering walls of once thrifty villages and will
ind one only master & asps the whole domain that
once furnished happy homes for dozen white fami-
lies. Indeed country in its infancy, where fifty
years ago forest tree had been feled by the
axe of the pioneer is already exhibiting the painful
signs OF senility and decay apparent in Virginia and
the Carolinas'
This gentleman is distinguished as zealot
for the extension of the blessings of Slavery to
the free Territories. The above extract from
his eloquent speech is a picture drawn from
life, and exhibiting to the eye the charms of
Slavery, which the small freehoders of the
North and West, who cultivate their farms
with their own hands, well know how to APP
preclate, from contrast.
We would not have adverted TO the disfran-
chsement of the mass of the white population
in South Carolina and other Southern States,
by property qualification for office. and the de-
feat of the right of suffrage by the rotten-bo-
rough system, had we not seen with what con-
tempt OF every principle of free government
the attempt is now made to carry Kansas for
Slavery. An usurpation, put up with force
and arms by Gen. Atchison, has already estab-
llshed Slavery in that Territory, has guarded it
with test oaths. and denounced the death pen
atty against all who oppose it. The President
OF the United States is pledged by his proca-
nation TO maintain the usurpation, and if he
is reelected, or any other nominated by the
South TO succeed hun, the army of the United
States will be employed to rivet Slavery on
Kansas, under the laws passed by Gen Atchi-
sons followers from Missouri The North
must unite 10 defeat this attempt by the cleo
ton of a President who will maintain the
rights of the people of the North in the Terri
tory, or a Gordon of Black Republics will
stretch from Missouri west to the Pacific. The
consequence will be, that no free white Repub-
lal. r., 81 Il
of Slave States. The free settlers of the North,
on their way TO Kansas, are now obliged to
turn away from Missouri, to reach their destina-
ton with their property, and means of defend
ing IL.
What will result from the creation of cor
don of Slave States across the Continent? Ii
surrenders all south of il to Slavery. And what
will be the condition of the slaveless white
population which must spring up in this vast
region2 We see, In the fate of the poor free
population of Mexico, TO 80 what complexion it
must come at last" whenever slave monopoIy
has once given Its owners the mastery over the
soil. Slavery nominay is abolished throughout
the Republic Of Mexico, but exists, in fact,
under the name Of peonage. The owners of the
soil feed and clothe those who work for them :;
they charge their laberers more for their sup
Plies than they agree 10 pay them for wages; and
the result IS. that the laborer is constantly fall
ing more and more in debt, and the law sub
Jects him TO his creditors until he works out
his Indebtedness. The effect of the system is
to compel man to sell himself and his fam
lily.
And this, taken in connection with the con-
diuon OF the poor white population in the
South-as shown in the passages we have ia
ken from the address of Governor Hammond
OF South Carolina, the Hon. C.. c.. CLAW. of
Alabama, and other leading Southern states
men-expans the recent article in the Rich
mond Enquirer, the oracle of Southern inter
ests, which deliberately argues the right of sub
Jecting whites, as well as blacks, to Slavery.
Nay, If goes so far to insist that this right Of
making white slaves is /" inalenable." The
article thus presses this point:
+" They chose holding Mr. Jeferson's doctrine)
begin to reason, by assuming Slavery to be morally
and religiousy wrong; and the South hitherto has
granted their premises and attempted to justify Ne
gro Slavery, as exception to general rule or if
wrong, as a matter of bargain between the North
and the South. The lars Of God 01d nature are
hist IL is far obvious that negroes should be
slaves than whites-for they are only fit to labor
not TO drect-yet the principle Of iSLaUrv itseIj
right and does NOT depend difference Of oomyieT-
! IOn."
Under this doctrine, it follows that here a
more direct enslavement of the white race may
be insisted upon than that obtained in Mexico,
under the cOntrlvance of debtor yasSalane
| The doctrine is positive sanction to the bond
| age OF the white race, and asserts that " the
laws of God and nature are immutable - in its
support, and man cannot bargain them
away" 1t is practically illustrated now in
the Utah Territory, where man holds null
ttude of women as slaves, calling them his
wives. What is there in Mr. Riches princi-
pie, 10 prevent Brigham Young from holding