Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1857-02-21
From the Missouri Democrat.
Emancipation Of Slaves in Rzis
SOlapis

State policy, we viii venture to say that
Il IS the grandest ever propounded to the
ipeople. If it were affirmed in a constitu-
tional convention, and thoroughly carried
out without any violation Of vested rights,
Missouri, in few years subsequent TO its
contamination, would be the foremost State
on the American continent. Population
would flow in from all sides were the bar
rier Of negro slavery once removed, and in
lplace Of $4,000 slaves, we should have
| 100000 white men, which, in addition to
the population we would have at that time,
would give us at once an aggregate Of two
millions.
Is Missouri ambitious of political power
"a power which is slipping away from the
South. The mode of acquiring it is found.
We are not rash enough to attempt a de-
Iscription of our condition if the element Of
free labor were introduced. The earth
would give up its hidden treasures at its
bidding as the sea will give up It's dead :;
and the soil would bloom more luxuriautly
than if it drank the dews ofHebron nightly
ten thousand kecls would vex cur rivers,
towns along their banks would grow into
cities, and St. Louis would soon unite in
itself the attributes Of the greatest COM
meIcial, manufacturing and literary me-
tropolis in the world. Let it be remem-
oered that we have every inanimate ele-
ment Of wealth and power within our lin
| its, and that we require only labor-free
labor-for we need not say that seryile la
Dor is inadequate.
1t will be asked-what will be done
with the niggers? We answer that char
itv begins at home, that we are only inter
eated for the whites. You who are so
much attached TO the niggers could not
fail to provide for them. We are not the
apostle Of the Gentiles. We regret to say
that we have very little Booraboolagba
philanthropy in our nature; and ever for
the purpose Of civilizing and Christianizing
the African, we should not tolerate his
presence, if we could lawfully and honofa-
bly, dispense with it. We feel that our
mission il not Of that nature, but we 10
not object to those who are called to it.
We will, nevertheless, suggest that our
lcolored folks might be shipped to Liberia.
It is remarkable that aristocracy in eve
Try age and country, has planted itself upon
the idea Of property as established by law.
When the French Republican asks for
bread or work, he is met with an enuncia-
ton of the rights Of property; when the
frishnan asks for tenant right, that the
profits Of his own labor may be SECURED to
him, the grinding landlord shelters himself
bvlsll,,i Lis s,i-tv =? f.VPeity, af10 6iefnly
refuses the demand. It is so everywhere.
We grant the rights of property, and should
not favor any movement for emancipation
which would not secure full compensation
to the elaye-hofder, but the safety of the
State is the supreme law, and enough has
recently transpired to show to the discern
ing that our future safety would be best
maintained by putting in operation grad
ual system Of emancipation.
The opponent of the movements will
urge two objections to 1.-THE debt which
the purchase Of the slaves would entail on
the State, and the agitation which may
ensue. By the last census there were in
round numbers $4,000 slaves in Missouri,
valued at $5O,000,000. Our railroads
when completed will have cost that sum,
and the State so far from being impover-
ished by the expenditure will be much rich
er than it was when those great works
were commenced. A few years hence the
State will be better able to loan $50,000,-
900 than it is now to bear the burden Of
the $19,000,000 given to the railroads,
and no one can say that this burden is on
erous. England with national debt Of
$4,000 900 give 800, 100000 to the
Jamaica planters as compensation for e.
maucipating their slaves. Even as a IL
nancial question there is nothing startling
in it, especially when it is remembered
that land qco,3ld double III pa7@e simulta-
neously with the passage Of the constitu-
tional amendment authorizing its enact
ment.
There need be no pernicious agitation,
and even if there should, it IS the penalty
which we cannot avoid paying at some
time; and it is easier to pay it now, than
in the future. Who that watches passing
events and indications, is not sensible Of
the fact; that great internal commissions
await the slave States? Better TO grapple
with the danger in time, if danger there
be, and avert it, than wait until it becomes
formidable. One thing IS certain, or his
tory is no guide; that i, that slavery can
not be perpetuated anywhere. An agita-
ton now would be the effort Of the social
system to throw of disease which had
not touched its vitals; hereafter it would
be the struggle for life with a mortal sick
ness. But we do not apprebend any agi-
tation more violent than has been forced
upon us for years by the pro-slasery politi-
clans. Agitating the slavery question has
been their constant business, and nothing
worse has resulted from it than their ele-
walton to office-no very triHing evil, BY
the way-and the temporary subjugation
of Kansas.
Resides we know that all the free States