The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-09-24
The NORTHERN PRESS.
FRUITS OF SLAVERY IN TEXAS


The innumerable lawless acts into which the
Southerners are every day forced for the pres
ervation of the peculiar Institution have been
for years slowly producing results which, even
in their present state of development, may well
make US tremble. They have made trial by
jury mockery, and the liberty Of the press a
snare, aud the habe0S corpus act waste ga
per. 1t may be necessary that such things
should be; that men should be lynched and
banished by mobs that, in dealing with Of
fences of a certain character, vigilance com
misees should usurp the seat Of Justice ;'but
we warn the people among whom such prsc-
tees exist, that every one Of these spssmodic
outbreaks OF popular indignation is q blow
struck at Freedom herself; more deadly, be
cause more insidious, than the open assaults of
despot.
We are led into these remarks By the report
of public meeting recently held at San An
tonic, Texas, by a number of the leading mer.
chants of that town, for the purpose Of denoun-
cling the outrsges committed by bands of armed
citizens upon the Mexican transfers transport
ing goods from Matagorda Bay to the city
From the very first, the Mexicans' in Texas, in
spite CT their being guaranteed by treaty a foil
and equal participation in the rights Of Amer
can citizenship, have been robbed. metreated,
aud baDished, Wholesale. Mr.. Olmsted men
tons, IN his Ieras Journey, that at Austin, in
1853, meeting was held at which it was re.
solved that al the resident Mexicans were
horse thieves, and twenty families were accord.
ingly driven from their homes. similar &C
curence took place at Seguin. in 1854 Even
at San Antonio, where the Mexicans form a
majority of the population, an at'empt was
made to raise posse for the sheriff to drive
them from their homes, and the scheme was
rlrrf ta1 - 81 r n
70 take part in 1t. There is a general feeling
among the Americans that the Mexicans are
" impairment" and ought to be exterminated,
The Pro-Slavery faction, reckless of all con
sequences, are intent upon driving them from
the country Texas, at this moment, swarms
with vigilance committees, whose action is
mainly directed against these unfortunates
whom We have blessed by casting over them
the 3gis of our Constitution. The San Antonio
committee alone has hanged over twenty per-
sons.
At the meeting to which we have referred
resolutions we're passed denouncing these out
RACES in very strong terms, and calling upon
the teamsters to resist, and pledging themselves
10 use every means to bring the lswless rufians
who sssail them to Justice. The testimony
they bear to the character Of the Mexicans is
worth quoting:
1LCSObOcHs IndJ we WOulu euggeGt 10 the
termsters, &c, of the lower country, who com.
plain of our preference for the employment of
Mexican cartmen, at low prices. instead of en-
ploying them, that the price Of hauling, ike
that of other commodities, is regulated By the
great law Of supply and demand, and is beyond
ner control; aud that they should reflect, be.
fore resorting TO violence towards their Mexican
rivals, that the blame, if any, rests on the com
munity that cannot consume goods sufficient to
give employment to all engaged in hauling,
and not on the Mexcans and that teamstere,
well as others, who can't get work at their
own business, must find some other en- pov-
ment; that our reasons for preferring to employ
Mexicans in hauling our goods is because we
find them, after the experience of years, the
most reliable carriers, doing their work will
promptness, and manifestng a fathfulness 0
fulfilling their contracts Dequalled-qualti,
that, in all communities, will give preference
to any body of men, for any employment"