Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-10-01

VII G,OOu,pOO, WHile IHOSe vi bhe ANoltlCiu III
States are worth only sS3, 900, 600, (see last
Report of U. S. Secretary of the Treasury
This shows what we are, and what we might
be, in the South, if our land was under ex-
tensive cultivation, instead of the small por-
tion now producing crops; and the cultiva-
ton Of even one-half would leave forest
land in abundance for all the uses to which
it might be applied and for which it would
be wanted in civilized life. If we wait for
the natural increase of our a, 900, 900 Of slaves
to supply US with labor to bring our country
to high state of improvement, we shall wait
in vain. The world will grow hoary with
age; generations will pass away; and the
forests will perish and spring again out Of
their dust and ashes, before this desirable
consummation will take place. We owe it
to ourselves and posterity to make progress
in this grand road to national greatness and
individual posterity, while we are on the
earth and able to work. Then let us have
no delay. If it be said that we may have
too many slaves, and their labor would thus
be Improbable, I answer that the number to
be introduced from Africa may be graduated
to the wants of the country, by law, so as to
prevent too great an influx of slaves at one
time. When new, untaught negroes come,
it will require time to teach them, as we'll as
time to procure them, and by proper laws the
trade may be regulated for the public good.
We cannot begin this enterprise too soon !:
We have no time to spare.
The number of slaves would not be too
great if it was gradually increased to four
times that of the white population of tho
South. At present, the white population
doublcc that of the slaves, in our section ::
100000 of white people, against 4,OOO,-
900 of slaves.
Let us take some light from the lamp Of
history. In the most enlightened and pow
erful nations of antiquity, their slaves great
ly outnumbered the free population. The
number of slaves in Athens was thirteen.
times that of the free people. In Sparta,
the land of heroes, the birthplace of Leon.
idas, whom Thcrmopyle' crowned with i'm
mortal glory, there were $1,000 free citizens
when there were 100000 helots, degraded
slaves, and 2O,000of the intermediate class
not entitled topolticalrights. Gibbon says
that in the time when the Emperor Claudius
exercised the office of censor, he took an ac-
count of the number of the Roman people,
and concludes by saying that the slaves were
equal in number to the free people of the
whole Roman world. Some idea of the
number of slaves in Italy, about the advent
of Christ, may be had from the fact that
Crassus, the triumvir and colleague of Juli-
US Caesar, owned $4,000 slaves. All the
Greek and Roman slaves were white, and
some of them highly educated Black slaves
were little, if at all, known till the opening
of the slave trade, in Western Africa, about
the year 1850, in the time of Pope Martin
", who held in bondage the first ten slaves
brought from thence. This large proportion
of slaves in these three celebrated ancient
nations, never gave any uneasiness from dread
of instructions. The Helots were some
times insubordinate, but were easily brought
to order. The existence of slavery was ut
the very foundation of Grecian and Roman
greatness. The slaves cultivated the soil
and practised the mechanic arts, so as to en-
able the free citizens to cultivate all the arts
and sciences, both of peace and war, by
which they steadily ascended the sleeps of
fame and lave left, though fallen people,
monuments of their greatness, which excite
the wonder of modern times, and which will
secure them imperishable renown.
Some ingenious writer has recently said
that the area of the Mississippi basin is large
enough and rich enough to sustain : popu-
lation equal to that of the whole number of
the human race on the globe. I am sure
that, comparing the Southern territory with
that of Ireland and China, apopulation Of
500 100000 might be sustained in the slave
holding States, with more comfort than is
enjoyed in either of those countries. Think
of Ireland having 100000 of people, with
an area not as large as some of our States,
while the whole South, in black and white,
now numbers but about 12,000,00O! A
member of Congress lately said, that in one
bend of the Mississippi river there was land
enough to employ all the slaves in Virginia.
This, too, is land which will produce 1000
pounds of seed cotton per acre, and ten bales
may be made per hand.
By supplying the demand for slaves in the
Western States from Africa, We will stop the
drain from the Eastern and older States and
thus keep them identified with the new States
in supporting the institution.
BY increasing the number of slaves here,
the African slave trade would give addition
al strength and stability to the institution of
slavery; and certainly, when the fanatical
spirit of the world is arraying formidable
opposition to the South, it is the part of wis
dom and duty to fortify ourselves in every
way and as speedily aspossible. In the South,
at least one.half of the people are not slave
holders, because the price of slaves is so
high that the honest poor man cannot buy
them. Let the number be increased SO as
to bring down the price, and all the indus
trious, aspiring poor people will become slave
owners, become identified in feeling and in.
terest with the institution; and when this is
done, pillar will be erected under the fab
ric of slavery which will render it impreg-