Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-02-21
From the st. Louis News.
THE EMANCIPATION QUESTION SOLVED
The ISSUE OF SLAVERY IN
MISSOURI.
From the St. Louis News.

1t appears by the recent census of Missouri that
while the white population of the State has insreas.
ed thirty-ei9ht per cent. in tho last six years the
slaves have increased only about two per cent. in
the same time. There are 244, $40 more white per-
sons in Missouri now than there was in 1856 l,while
the addition to the number Of slaves since that
year, is only 1923. 1t is evident that this num-
Der, eighteen hundred and twenty-three, does not
even represent the natural.increase of the number
of slaves (SS,327) in the State in 1851; for negroes
are proyerbially prolific animals, under the cir
cumstances at all favOrble to their multiplication.
Neither is i. equal to the number Of slaves that
have been brought into the state by substantial far
mers from Kentucky and Virginia who have se.-
tied in Missouri within the last half dozen years;
for several instances OF companies Of such emf.
grants, with rs many as 100 negroes each, have
come under our individual observation during the
last year. Certainly no. less than three thousand
slaves have been imported into Missouri from 9TH
Ell slave States. during the last six years. What,
then is the conclusion irresis.ably forced upon US
by these undeniable facts? Simply this-that
more slaves have died in, and been sent out Of the
State altogether. than have been born in or brought
into the State. Out of all that have been born in,
and all that have been brought into tho state, since
1851, only enough have been retained to give the
paltry increase of two per cent. on SS,S27, in six
years.
Here is tie key to the true solution of the eman-
~cipation question in Missouri; If these figures
uip OlICCt-duu W q u " NV I luik lucI q
been questioned-slavery has reached its climax
in this State, and is on the wane. 1t has reached
q point beyond which it cannot, or will not, srs-
tain itself, and is, henceforth, doomed to decline
The Census will, no doubt, show a positive decrease
in the number of slaves. had there been no slaves
brought into Missouri, in the last six years, as is
the case with the slave States Virginia, Delaware,
Maryland and North Carolina, there cannot be a
doubt that a positive decrease in our number of
slaves would have been reported even in the pres
ent census. The fact is beyond question that the
slaves we have sold to the South and set free, to.
gether with those who have run away and been
stolen by the Abolitionists, since 1851, consider
ably out-number either those born amongst us, or
those brought in the state, and very nearly both
together.
This is a serious, stubborn fact, and is pregnant
with considerations which our statesmen would do
we'll to constantly bear in mind. IL u census of
Virginia, or Maryland, or Kentucky, should dis:
close the fact that the number Of slaves in either
of those states had increased only two per cent. in
six years, the circumstances would possess but lit
tie significance; it would only show that the de-
mand for slaves at the extreme South, where they
are consumed, had been nearly equal to the sup-
ply Of slaves in Virginia. Maryland and Kentucky,
where they are produced. Virginia, MARYLAND,
and Kentucky are old slave-growing States, and
if, during any period. they should sell more slaves
to the South than they had raised during the same
time, the fact would by no means. warrant the
opinion that the institution of slavery was crum-
bling in them. Their stock of slaves will still re-
main. But Missouri is a uew State, and is an i'm
porter as we'll as an exporter of slaves. Up to ten
years ago, she imported more than she exported
Her Hemp and Tobacco lands were being taken
up by Virginians and Kentuckians, and the slaves
required TO cultivate them were not diverted by a
greater demand and higher price for them, in the
Cotton growing regions of the Gulf States. She
was filling up rapidly with shareholders, and
promised TO become one of the strongest Of the
more Northern Slave States. But things are now
changed. The Increasing demand for Cotton has
increased the price of slaves in the Cotton States,
and made them more valuable there than apy
where else throughout the South. So high are the
prices they bring, that Missouri, poorly supplied as
she is with the article, enters the market as a sell
Ter, sends her negroes to the South to raise cotton.
and imports white men to raise her cattle and
grain. The result j. that the increase of her slave
population in the last six years is only eighteen
hundred and twenty three, while the increase of
her white population in the same period is 244, $40
Aud yet. slave labor is not improbable in Missou-
ii. On the contrary, il is highly remuneratiye, as
the prosperity of the Hemp and Tobacco raisers
of the State. who generally own a larger number
Of slaves than other farmers, proves. But II is
more profitable in the extreme Southern States and
hence the expectation of negroes to the South
from Missouri to an extent which. if it continues,
will sooner or later render Missouri ~slaveless.
We are not discussing the Emancipation ques-
ton. 1t is a subject which need not be discuss
cd by partisiaps and demagcgues in the arena of
party politics with q view to legislative action in
reference to it. We have only stated facts-ssri.
Gus, stubborn facis-backed by figures. and made
them the basis of truly legitimate conclusions
Now, what shall be done? Nothing at all. If sia-
very in Missouri has, of itself, and under no arti.
fetal stimulus, but under the pressure of natural
and heslthfal causes alone taken the i~Dcipient steps