The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-11-27
RE-0PENING OF THE SLAVE TRADE.


the Charleston Is. CO. Standard. 1t will be
observed, that the burden of it is, the necessity
of keeping out poor or laboring white popu.
lation, and Strengthening the power of the
small class of Shareholders:
The Stare Trade to be Re-opened.-Nearly
three years ago, we avowed ourselves in favor
of the slave trade. 1t is not too much to say
that the position was an extreme one.
Though Slavery was possessed of every ele-
ment necessary to living social system, we
| felt it never could be defended upon pre-exist-
ing principles or opinions; but that, to its vim
dication and establishment, there was the me-
cessity of distinct organization and intelli.
gence; that, instead of flank, we must pre-.
sent front-instead of fear, we must have
hope-instead Of endurance, action-and, to
| the end of changing our attitude in the con-
test, and of planting our standard right in the
! very faces of our adversaries, we propose, as a
leading principle of Southern policy, to reopen
and legitimate the slave trade.
The Southern journals were generally silent,
and all those which spoke, except the Charleston
Mercury and the Richmond Examiner, dspre-
Gated its temerity. Since that time,
however, there have been many circumstances
to affect opinion at the South. Yielding ground
before our adversaries, we have come, at last,
to points beyond which we can yield no fur
Their, and the alternatives of surrender or re.
action have been forced upon US.
One necessary step was to preoccupy the terri
tory to the West, and thus preserve, as near as
possible, an equality in the Federal branch of
the National Legislature; but there we were
met by an inefficiency of population.
While men, from superabundance, were
crowded out from the North, and were directed
by Emigration Aid Societies upon Kansas, we
had not enough for the ordinary offices of labor,
and it required force to send them out. If we
were to send laboring whites, there was the ap-
prehension that they themselves would acquire
an interest in the Territory in opposition to the
institution of domestic Slavery, and thus might
| fail to secure the State. If we were to send
| slaves, we lose their conservative Office in the
| social economy at home.
So many whites have come in since slaves
have been restricted, that this class of our pop
ulation is greatly in excess. Many have taken
TO the walks of manual labor. They struggle
| for subsistence in competition with the slave,
and already, even in this State, where there is
still an excess of slaves, the proposition has
been made and pressed, to relieve the whites
from the seventies of such contest. To for
tify the frontier, therefore there was the danger
of violating the integrity of slave society in the
centre of our soundest State. The political
power to be gained on the one hand was not
compensation for the moral strength to be lost
on the other.
One effort might be successful, but others
must occur perpetually; and, constrained to
elect between power in Congress or power in
the States, between social strength or political
extension, our speculations turned abroad, and
the minds of men were forced to vibrate be-
tween the alternatives of " Recommendation or
the slave trade"
Another not less necessary step was to in
crease the general population of the South, and
preserve an approximation to equality in the
popular branch of the National Legislature.
If it had been possible to preserve footing in
the Senate by territorial extension, it soon ap-
peared that the House would take the control
of Government. That body had elected an
Abolition Speaker and its constituents propose
to elect a President. Without delegation
from the South approaching in strength the
delegation from the North, there was no hope
of participation in the Government. The ne
cessity for greater population became appa-
rent. We could expect no great increase of
foreign labor in competition with our slaves !;
but, should increase occur, it would tend still
more to change the nature of our society. The
white element would only the more surely claim
the aid of legislation 20 exclude the slave, and
there was no reasonable hope, therefore, of
being able to supply our wants with the pauper
population of Europe. To submit to the gov.
eminent of an irresponsible majority in Con-
gross, was not to be thought of; and the minds
of men were forced again to vibrate between
the alternative of dissolution or the slave trade.
There was another important step to be
taken. A contrast has been drawn between
the North and South, in respect of their i'm
provements-the deficiencies of the South had
been established, and the fact was charged to
the institution of domestic Slavery. We knew
that this was no evidence of inefficiency-we
knew that while labor had been cut off from the
South, it had continued to pour in upon the
North that, in consequence of this, they have
| twice as much labor and less land, and it was
natural and necessary, therefore, that their rel
alive improvements should be greater.
We also knew that in proportion to popula-
ton at the South the products are greater than
among any other people in the world, and to
us there was nothing in this contrast to cause
dissatisfaction; but the fact by all the world
was taken as conclusive proof of inefficency.
We knew that equality could ultimately be re-
stored by an equality of labor; but the fact
that interests are already established at the
| North, gives them a present advantage in the
race. If solcitous for free white labor, it would
naturally hesitate to come in competition with
our slaves, but it would the less incline to come,
that there were no enterprises in existence to
| attract it. These were at the North, and to the
North was drawn still other labor to their fur.
Their progress.
| To stem the current of opinion, therefore, as
we'll as to turn the tide of improvement, and
| give to ourselves the comforts of progress and
| the confidence of the world there was the ne.
cessity for labor; and as this labor could never
come from Europe, We were turned again to
Africa, and the minds of men were further
forced to vibrate between the alternatives OF
perpetual dependence or the slave trade.
And there was still another step. Men have
been forced to realize that whites and slaves
have been brought together here in unequal
and unnatural proportions. A slave society
properly constituted, will have neither race in
excess and, if left free to form, there is but
little doubt but that the races would come to-
gether In natural proportions. There would be
slaves enough for labor, and whites enough for
direction, and the case would be exceptional in
which the white man would labor in competi
ton with the slave, or the slave direct, except
in subordination to the white man. Bat, as al
ready maintained, they had not been free to
form.
While slaves from abroad have been kept
out, whites from abroad have been forced in,
and hlling the rounds of employment, open
from the humblest labor to the highest offices
of direction, they have been in the way of push.
ing Slavery out. That slaves, if free to come,
would have been competent to every emergen.
cy of labor, there can be little doubt; but, not
being free to come, they have been too much
extended they have left interstices into which
Free Labor, by the necessities of the case, has
been forced, and the institution has lost much
of its integrity.
Will. A. G,,,l bon.z... ..-nr~tL.u.l H..