The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-11-06
D. c..
SOUTHERN DEMOCRACY.
THE BLESSINGS OF SLAVERY.

From the Richmond Gva Enquirer October 18Th 1856
edited by William F. Richie and Roger A Pryor-the
leading Advocate OF Mr.. Buchanan in the Souih.
We are becoming every day more hopeful and
confident of the future. The election of Mr.
Buchanan we now think certain.
That will afford us at least four years for the
discussion of the subject of African Slavery. a
great reaction has certainly commenced on the
whole subject OF domestic Slavery throughout
Chris.endcm. All admit that West India eman-
cipstion has been worse than failure. 1t has
injured the moral, religious, and intellectual
condition of the negro, and greatly diminished
the production of such necessares of life as cof-
lee, sugar, &c. Men in Europe and America
begin TO attempt to calculate the consequences
10 the civilized world of the total abolition of
negro slavery. The facts and data for the basis
of such calculation are abundant. The loss
Of the cotton, sugar, and rice crops, now pro-
duced by negro slavery would of itself PROSTATE,
IN great measure, every industrial interest In
Chrisiendom, break up commerce, and stsrve
one half the laboring whites. The very exist
ence of society, in great part of Europe and
America, seems to depend on the continuance
of this institution. Take away the products of
negro slavery and these societies would at once
be disorganized and disbanded, and soon
starve.
The South could better dispense with negro
Slavery as an economical and productive insti-
tuition, than the North or Western Europe. We
might still produce enough for home consump-
ton of those products which maintain the trade,
commerce. manufactures, and very lives of half
of Christendom but We should have no surplus
fer expectation.
Suppose it possible, that after many years
white hireling labor should fully supply the
place of our present slave labor, there is moth
ing 10 cheer the heart of the philanthropists in
the prospect of white men doing the field labor
of the hot and mslarious South.
As the discussion advances, the North will
perceive that the profits and the elevating social
effects of Slavery shared equally by the
slave-owners and by those who trade with them
The white Iaborers of England and the North,
now employed in skillful mechanical and we'll
paid labor, must descend to the toilsome, i'll
paid drudgery of agricultural hirelings, in the
absence of negro Slavery. They would no
longer find employment in their present occu-
pations, and would only be needed to do that
work which negroes had ceased to do. The
emancipation of the blacks is equivalent to the
enslavement of whites.
The cruelty of compelling white men to labor
IN the cotton, the sugar, and rice fields, is great
er than that of the African slave trade. Yet
white men must so labor, after negro emanci-
patton, or a great part Of mankind must
starve.
When the North calms down little, and Sc
riously investigates the influences, for good or
for evil, of the existence and gradual extension |
of negro Slavery, on the North, they will find |
those influences all good, all promotive Of their
prosperity and well-being.
eBut the greatest reactionary movement is one |
carried on by the most learned and philosophy |
cal men, who are yet wholly unconscious of
what they are doing.-T socialists and com
munists, in denounciDg free society, have gone |
very far to Justify slave society. They are bust
ly engaged in Europe and America, rsnsack- |
ing, sitting, exposing the past history and |
present condition of the laboring poor. The |
astounding amount of poverty, ignorance, and /
crime, which they bring to light, must, after a |
time, go far 10 reconcile all fair minds to negro
Slavery. For, If such be the condition of great
part of the laboring whites, what would be the |
condition of negroes exposed TO the same hard |
ships and temptations?
The South must push the discussion in the
new form 1t has assumed. Expose, compare,
and weigh, the actual evils of the two systems,
as ascertsined from history and statistics. By
this means, all men will be certain to think bet
ter of negro Slavery than they have heretofore
done. Most men will see, that if liberty without
property has done so little for the whites, il
would be unmitigated curse to the negroes
This mode of calling for facts instead of alb
slrsctions is new to the South, and already con-
fuses, staggers, and bewilders the Abolitionists
Yet it is the only fair and satisfactory way of
handling the subject.
We must continue to insist that they shall
prove, at least, the good effects of European
emancipation. before they ask us to try the ex-
pertinent of lberating three millions and half
of neoroes