Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-10-01
Gke Slabe Trabe.
From the Marion Star.
SPEECH OF G. ". MILLER,

3U utc 6DfftUH t>see' 'et'N'
FELLOW CITIZENS: Having been invited
to address you on this occasion, shall take
pleasure in reasoning with you, on subject
of vital interest to us all. It is true, as my
friend, Hon. j. D. Allen, said, in his COM
plimentary introduction, that. I was born in
the District of Sumter; and now a citizen
of Marion, I come from the Eastern border,
to Barnwell, the Western border of the
State, to enjoy his and your hospitality, and
commune with you in terms of sympathy and
brotherly love. Marion shakes hands with
Barnwell; and may friendship and harmony
cement them in indissoluble bonds.
We have reason to rejoice that We, in
common with our fellow citizens of the Union,
are this day enjoying, in peace and prosper
ity, the blessings of civil and religious liber-
ty, under republican government; and
our rising glory is brilliantand dazzling, even
in comparison with the majestic pomp, pow
er and parade of transatlantic and Oriental
nations. Nevertheless, our Confederacy,
and especially the holding States, have
not yet reached their eliminating point of
civilization, wealth and splendor. Great as
We are, we are still in astate of PROCESS; and
the South will be slow in attaining her full
and due growth, in national greatness, with
out that necessary additional labor which is
alone to be supplied by re-opening the Afri-
can Slave Trade. This subject propose to
discuss; and the time is come, not only for
discussion, but for action. Europe clamors
for more cotton than the. world at present
supplies; France has already contracted for
10000 African slaves, called apprentices, to
be employed in the West Indies; while the
South, with 100000 of square miles of
territory, embracing cotton lands enough to
supply the world, cultivates but 100000
of acres in cotton-only one acre in l2S of
her soil; and this is the best that can be
done till Africa shall pour in upon us more
of her population toreclam our fertile lands.
The high price and scarcity of cotton have
stopped thousands of looms, and manufac-
turers are confniBg their operations to the
finer fabrics. The want of labor has made
sugar so dear as to be almost mere article
of luxury; and population, all the world
over, is pursuing its natural law of outrun-
ming production. Nature has ordained that
our best lands can only be cultivated, under
our burning sun, by African muscle; and
we see that, with the requisite labor, our
vast territory may sustain in comfort popu-
lation larger than that of China; that we
may make every wilderness and every swamp
now under the dominion of water bloom
ing garden, beautiful as rce-feld; improve
the whole face of the country with roads,
canals, residences, churches, schools, COL
leges, manufactures, and other monuments
of civilization make ourselves independent,
and the producers of grain and raw material
for the world and on the wings of our own
commerce carry them to every corner of the
earth; 80 that the South may proudly lift
her head preeminent among the nations,
crowned with chaplet more enviable than
the diadems of Eastern royalty. But with
this prospect before US, and the boon within
our grasp, by re-opeuiug the African slave
trade, supine procrastination or political in
trigue advises US to postpone discussion and
action upon the subject. 1t is a subject of
too much Importance for delay and, in dis
cussing it, I will consider
l. The morality of holding slaves and Of
re-openiug the slave trade.
2. The: philanthropy of acquiring and
holding African slaves.
3. The benefit to the South of re-opening
the slave trade
I. And the practicability of effectins it.
In the first place, I shall show, in few
words, thatthe servtude of the African is in
accordance with the will of Almighty God
and he who does the will of God cannot be
in the wrong. Slavery existed in the prime
val world, before civilized society originated,
when man was pastoral and nomadic, living
in tents, wandering to and fro and up and
down in the earth, driving and feeding his
focks for substance, with no better than
patriarchal government. If we float up the
stream of time to the days of Adam and
Eve, We shall find the germ of slavery, when
God put Eve under the "rule" of Adam,
for eating the forbidden fruit. Truly, this
"ruls" has come down to our day, but. like
the current of the river Arar, it is now of
such gentleness and smoothness in its course,
that it is difficult for the spectator to discern
whether control flows from man or woman.
After the Flood, when Noah and his three
sons, Shem Ham and Japheth, were on earth,
the curse of servitude was denounced on the
African race, through Noah, by inspiration
from God.-(Brown's Bible Dec, Noah. }
Ham, after the Flood, became the father of
Canaan. Noah began to be husbandman,
and planted a vineyard. Hedoubtless igno-
rantly and ipnocently, drank too freely of
the wine which he had made; and, as the
book of Genesis (chap. 9th) relates, becom-
ing intoxicated and uncovered in his tent,
Ham saw him and spoke Of it to his two
brothers:
"And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw
the nakedness of his farther and told his
two brethren without.
"And Shem and Japheth took garment
and laid it upon their shoulders, and went
backward, and coveredthe nakedness of their
father: and their faces were backward, and
they saw not their fathers nakedness
= "And Noah awoke from his wine and knew