The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1857-02-12
From Mt Columbus Times.
PRACTICAL RESULTS OF FALSE PHILAN.
THROPY

ring us iltSl quarter, 10y iuc advent ot Il CLASS
Of meu knoen rs Philaulhropis,s, who vain
ly imagined that il was possible to reform
aud cure al ihe abuses OF government, all
the vitts 1t social life, and all the intellcctu
al, moral and physical leformities and de-
fec,s "f humanity, by act of Parliamcnt.-
For fifty years this reforming process has
been III operation, and the result is before
the present generation in moustrous alor-
tions aud failures in every quarter of :hc
globe. 1t would he interesting and irStruc-
tive to investigate the praclicl results Of the
various reforms set OH foot 10y the Towards,
Clarksons and Wibcrlorccs, but our space
co,npcls us to restrict our observations to
one reform only-the abolition Of slavery
l,v England and France in their West India
PosseSsuls.
For thousands Of years the negro race had
vtgctated oil the western coasts of Africa,
without advancing and inch in civilization,
or adding the first idea to the general stock
of knowledge, or aifor,ling the first example
of morSi heroi>ni, or even contributing the
first article to the coiuiuercc Of the world by
their industry, skill, or enterprise. CuIlcc
lived and died, and left no sign. lie was
the same thrittlcss, improvdent, stupid and
debased savage when America WIS discov
cred, that he was during the rel ign Of phar
oah in Egypt, and Was as useless an incum-
brance upon the ground as the wild beasts
of his native forests.
When America was discovered there was
great need of aborers, and tho hardy pi-
oneers who first broke the Stiffness of these
western Willis with the noisy tread of civili-
cation, took the lazy Africans aad compel
led them to earn their bread by the sweat of
their brow. For long years the 4 A!:;;>;.n slave
trade was not only tolerated, but encouraged
and participated in, by Kings, Lords and
commons, and the Whole world began to
feel the benefits Of Il system which made
Industrious workers of Il race of idle van;,-
bonds, and the class most benefited were
the negroes themselves, who began to i'm
prove us soor us they commenced to work,
and have gradually advanced i'll civilization
until they are at this day coniesscLly IL very
useful portion Of the population Of the Uni
ted States. by their labor the world is
clothed and i'll part fed; Ships, freightcI
with the products Of their labor, furrow
every sea, and factories, uncxampied in
splendor, employ millions Of men in its
manufacture. Such is the history of slave
ry in the United States.
But this beneficent system fell under the
ban OF the English and French pllilantlro-
pist, and because it did not Squire with
their notions Of an abstract moral truth, it
was rull,lessly aLolisl.sl, and the ignorant
and thriflleSs slave was turned loose in the
English and French Antilles to live or die,
to advance or rctrograde rs chance might
determine. Now let us note the practical
result OF this insane and silly effort to make
u free man of degraded savage.
"The first triumph Of these theories" we
quote from the New York Herald, twas wit
messed i'll St. Domingo. There Il com,nu-
nifty, which in 1889 produced la, 100000
pounds Of sugar, 70,0o0,000 pounds of cof.
fee, and 100000 pound OF cotton, las
been destroyed to the industrial world, and
its place has been filed only by comnluni-
ties organized OH a similar social svstem.-
The next triumph is exhibited in the West
India colonies of all the European powers,
except Spain. The change in their socia!
organization has reduced the production of
sugar in the English, French, Danish and
Dutch West Indies, since 1888. nearly one.
half, prccludins ut the same time any ad-
vance i'll the culture Of cotton. We're these
theories aud their attendant results to he
applied to the southern portion of the Uni
ted States and to the colonies of Spain,
which still hold to the system Of involunt;,-
ry negro labor, not only would they be in
volved i'll social ruin, but the shock 20 in
dustrial England would be of the most dis
aslrous magnitude"
But the degradation Of the African race
is not the only, and perhaps not the least,
EVIL OF this wild philanthropy.
Disappointed in the hope that the freed
African would continue to produce coffee,
cotton and sugar, as under the old system,
and even increase their contributions to
commerce, England and France have gone
OH cruise round the world, committing
tile most horrid atrocities upon far distant
aud unoffending natious, overturning gov
ernmemts. and setting up their own author
ity in their stead, for no other apparent
purpose than to find soil, climate and In.
Dor with which they can successfully com.
pete with slave labor in the United States
in the production Of our great staple; and
even consenl:ng to ensave the coolies ol
Asia under the fiction Of an apprenticeship
which, unfortunately f but seldom ever comes
to all end, and is wanting in all the human.
ities which temper African slavery, in the
hope of restoring the West Indies to thei,
original fertility and productivcness. And
now that their long and expensive expert
ment has ended in failure, the leading mind.
OF Great Britain have come to the concu
sion that without slave labor cotton canno
be produced with the certainty of purpos,
and regularity Of result necessary for com
mercial purposes"
The London Times, the great organ O
the merchants and manufacturers, boldl,
announces. in commenting upon DR.. Liv
ing.ton's discoveries, that "the one grca
service which the world demands from IL,
negro racs is the production Of cotton" an,
admitting that " the white man seems unfi,
ted for labor under the peculiar condition
of place aud atmosphere requisite for til
cultivation Of this necessary staple" pre-
pounds the doubt whether, even it it wer
possible 10 transfer the scene of its produt