Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-07-29
AFRICAN LABoRERs TO BE IMPORTED INTO
THE WEST INDIES-A NEW PHASE OF
ENGLISH ABOLITION PHILANTHROPY

AFRICAN LABoRERs TO BE IMPORTED INTO |
THE WEST INDIES-A NEW PHASE OF
ENGLISH ABOLITION PHILANTHROPY.
The following remarkable article appears in the
London Times Of June 18th. The lamentable con.
diton of the British West India Islands, and the
high and advancing prices of tropical products,
opening the eyes of the English people to the alb
surd fanaticsm of Exeter Hall. The Times taking
its cue from changing public sentiment is now of
the opinion that ''there is no humanity in leaving
Africa to itself" and that when slaves are we'll
treated their condition is not only superior to that
Of their countrymen at home but that Of the poorer
classes Of namy parts Of Europe In short, the
Times is in favor of the direct importation of labor
ers from Africa into the West Indies:
From the London Times, June 80.
To those who have been in the habit-not unnat-
uraly conceived-of regarding the slave trade ques.
ton one fraught with interminable embarrass-
ment, we beg to offer succinct staemen< of facts.
Attention must first be given to the traffic in slaves
and slavery itself. Against the latter, institu-
ton, enough certainly be said but with this at
present we are not concerned. The practice under
the ban Of universal law is the slave trade-that
nefrious and inhuman commerce, by which Gods
creatures, being first captured their native soil,
carried through successive scenes OF the most
frightful misery till they landed upon oppo-
site coast to be there sold into lifelong servitude
with all its nominations For this, at least, no plea
of custom necessity can be sustained. We can
not be told at this point that the practice has
or that it cannot be terminated without certain
difficulties. Whatever may be argued on behalf of
domestic slavery serfdom, nothing, at all events
can be said for that horrible trade which involves
at the worst kind of and the worst kind of
theft, and which in ali its accessories is thor
o,ghly atrocious that vanies of the most heihous
kind are its natural and ordinary incidents. This,
and not the domestic institutions of slavery, is what
we are considering-this is hat, for so long
time, and with such exemplary perseverance, we
have been striving to put down.
Now, what is it that stands in your way? Under
what conditions is this trade still maintained, and
how has it come to pass that it cannot be absolutely
abolished? The concurrence of European Govern
ments against the practice is universal and entire,
and this unanimity has existed for years. The
powers of ChrstendOm, of every degree, have con-
scented to denounce and eXtingush this most deest
able of trades and this common assent having been
stipulated two of the greatest nations of the world
have consented to keep the police of the ocean, so
that no contrabandst should attempt what all hon
est merchants have undertaken to forego. In other
words, whereas the governments of Europe have
covenanted for themselves and their colonies that
slaves shall not be imported into their dominions,
the export Of these unhappy beings from the soil of
their birth is stopped as far as possible by maritime
patrols. What further conditions, ask, could
possibly be required for the extinction of any traffic
marked out for destruction? AS far undertake
ings 60 every market is closed and every commun-
ication nterrupted yet the slave trade is rot at
end. Its proportions have been diminished, but it
exists STILL and its victims still to be numbered
by thousands Ostensbly all governments of
one mind and yet the traffic is not abolished.
Where, them is the obstacle, and what can be done
which, to all appearance, is not done already? As
it happens, put our finger, without any diff
fculty, on the leak from which the vessel is now
suffering.
There are no slaves imported into British colo
MES Our own work has been done thoroughly,
and is beyond impeachment There no slaves
imported into the United States. There
imported into the French Danish settlements,
and none now Brazlians earnestly assure us,
into Brazil. The only receptacle for those cargoes
of misery is Cuba the single delinquent State is
Spain. But Cuba is nominally closed against slaves
much as st. Vinccnts or Trinidad, and Spain
does not deny that she, we'll as Great Britain
France is committed by treaty to the abolition of
the traffic. How the execution of these conditions
is evaded has appeared very plainly in the letters of
our Madrid correspondent. The governor OF Cuba
is officer the tenure of whose place is usually
brief and always uncertain, while his emoluments
admit of enormous income from connivance at the
forbidden importations The Cubans ready to
buy slaves; others are found to fetch them from
Africa for sale; and, there is class Of Span
iards whose sympathies very active in the mat
ter, the planters lay in their human stock, and
the cabinet Of Madrid find it more convenient to
employ preexts and excuses than to exert its
thority against its own officers and subjects. Spain,
n short. has entered honestly into the abolition
of the slave trade. 1t could for very shame
fuse its concurrence but it will not be at the pains
of executing its engagements against the will of an
important colony, and it would rather carry
war of dispatches with the British Foreign Office
than involve itself in trouble at home.
We do not say that this policy contains much to
excite surprise, but to the interests of others it is
preudicial in the extreme The Cuban market
keeps the whole slave trade alive, perpetuateS all
the Introductory horrors of the traffic in Africa it.
self and maintains at their full weight the heavy
burdens arising from the preventive squadrons. At
the same time colonies suffering the
most grievous injustice, for Cuba is allowed to
thrive their ruin by its own perseverance in evil,
and to supply the demands of Europe through the
instrumcntality of the very machinery forbidden in
the adjacen. islands. If it were not for Cuba the
slave trade far can at present, would
be at an end. We do not deny that policy conin-
ed to this species of repression alone is likely enough
to be defective and something in the way of substi
tuition for the labor intercepted would probably be
indispensable to the the complete and permanent
success of our efforts. Still, far the first and
immediate object is commemorative interruption in
the traffic in human lesh-we should be apparent
ly accomplishing our ends if the importation of
slaves into Cuba could be stopped.
Here then, are the facts of the in very
narrow compass All countries Spain includeO
committed to the abolition of the traffic. but it
continues still at point of Spanish territory where
Spanish authorities not disposed to repress it.
If we can repress it at this point shall be only
doing what Spain herself is bound to do and what,
when pressed she declares her desire to DONE
1t has been suggested readers are aware that
should try the effect of preventive force the
coast of Cuba as we'll the coast of Africa anG
BILE 1otilla, have been considered kind of craft
especially adapted to the purposes in view. The
moral effect, too, of such policy would be MATERIAL
and would prove to the Spanish Government that