Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-01-11
SLAVE EMAEoTPATIoY-A NEW QUESTION.

SLAVE EMANCIPATI0N--A NEW QUESTION.
We observe that some Of obt Southern ex.
changes are beginning to sgitate the question of
exempting family servants from legal seizure ard
execution. This policy is urged upon the swo.
fold ground that it would have the tendency to
diuse the Institution Of slavery amoUg the present
non-slayeholders Of the South, thereby avoiding
the threads which abolitionism is seeking to make
upon that class and at the same time to lessen
the force Of one of their most effective appeals to
the passions about the cruelty Of forced separa-
tons Of families. What merit there is in such
proposition we are not yet prepared to say The
subject is worthy of consideration. and as such
we submit it to our readers. The Memphis Eagle
and Enquirer, treating this subject among other
things says:
"Our reading of Northern ntlment, as devel-
oped during the agitations OF ne past summer,
ENLIGHTENED Us to the intentions of the North
That intention broke out and shone through the
Republican papers, and while it looked to no vio-
lence it advised US of an under-current forced to
beat at our feet with the hope that, in good time
we should find our foundations undermined, and
the South IS 1t is, destroyed
" Northern policy goes upon the assumption
that the uon.slsveholders Of the South, from in
terest are hostile to slavery.
"The question for US to determine is, how can
the interests of the STAKEHOLDER and the non-slave.
holder be 50 consolidated as to destroy this sssump-
ton and produce, south Of Mason and Dixons
line, unit
southern legislation must be so shaped that, in
the course of q few years the whole people Of the
south can be relied upon to protect its institutions
or honor in any emergency"
"How is it TO be done2 The remedy is easy
the plan simple. The laws Of the South must en-
courage every citizen to not only become, but re-
MAN, STAKEHOLDER. If he become a STAKEHOLDER
from choice, be must choose between remaining so
and divesting himself voluntarily of the value Of
such slave property as he may possess. In short
law, exempting certain number or certain
amount in value, of slaves from execution or sale
for debt must be enacted, The commerce and
business of the country would soon accommodate
itself to the change whilst the South would be
brought together, both in interest and in the social
relation. The chances Of Southern occupation Of
the common territories of the Union would be
thus nineteen times increased, for it is correctly
estimated that that number Of Southern men, out
ct every twenty, sre non-ssVeholders. 1t is easy
to see that if these nineteen owned slaves, be they
many or few, wherever they might 60, their slaV es
would 90 with them and it is also very apparent
that in 8 contest between the North and the South
in the settlement of territory and the formation
of its institutions, there is only one Southern man
| to oppose to twenty Northern men.
The Richmond, Virginia, Whig treating Of the
| the same subject, says:
The adoption of this policy indicated would
result, it is perceived, in the universal diffusion of
slavery among the Southern people, and would,
| besides, deprive our enemies at the North of an
argument constantly employed by them against
US, and not without decided effect. That is, it
| it would take from them the fact upon which they
declsim so vehemently, Of there being in the South
only three hundred and odd thousand actual slave
| holders, whom for their fsctious and trsitOrous
purposes, they are pleased to denominste and de-
! nounce as the Slave Ohgsrchy. Establish by law
| an exemption Of family servants from execution,
| and instead of only three hundred thousand actu-
| al shareholders, we should soon have as a slave
! holder every head of a family in the Southern
! States; and would thus be Pecuuiarly interested
/ in defending and unfolding an institution so warm
ly cherished by ourselves, and SO bitterly and per.
| servingly sssailed from without