New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-04-15

the recent struggle in St Louis between fro-ol'
Ely and Anti-slayery resulting, as il did. IN the
election Of the Anti-Slavery municipal ticket oy 80
decided majority. 1t is the first indication ever
yet given on the part Of the laboring white PoPuia
ton Of any Southern slsveholding community OIL
anything like a just comprehension of the bearing
of the slsyehoding system on themselves ana 'nc''
social position and economical interests. IL Is
in fact, demOcratical uprising such as no
Southern State has ever before known. There mas
been great deal Of talk at the South about de-
mocracy, but hitherto it has been only talk. III
every Southern State the planters have been every!
thing, and the laboring men, merchants, mechan-
les professional men, nothng-we may say III
deed, less than nothing, abnegating themselves anu
their own interests to become mere echoes OF the
planters In ST. Louis we see the commencement
Of process by which Slavery is speedily 10 De
driven from all the most enterprslng and vigorous
Of the Slaveholding States. We have spoken OF
the Anti-Slavery triumph in that city as the act OF
the laboriDg men. But they were not the only
actors. The mOneyed men. the business leaders OF
the city, concurred and co6perated in it. Inc
combined forces Of capital, industry and lnteih-
gence carried the day over the longestabllshed
authority of the country planters, have hitherto
ruled in st. Louis with the same authority almost
as on their own plantations.
1t is observable that in Europe the abolition OF
Slavery and serfdom began with the towns As the
spirit Of industry, production and acquisition de-
yelopcd itself, free labor came more and more into
vogue 1t was soon discovered that slave labor
was incompatible with the higher degrees of skill
and industry and still more with the higher de-
grees Of production and consumption, both of which
depend mutually on each other. Throughout Eu-
rope the towns, as they grew in size and wealth.
became the seats Of free labor and places Of refuge
to the serfs who fled from the expressions of their
masters From the towns the same system OF free
labor gradually extended itself into the country
II was shown in the yicinage Of the cities that
free labor had no less advantage over slave la
Dor in agriculture than in manufactures and the
arts and hence by degrees, the total abolition of
slavery throughout Western Europe.
1t is in accordance with the nature of things that
the advocacy of free labor and efectual opposition
to the slaveholdng system III our Southern states
should find its first firm points of support IN the
commercial cities Of those States. The failure of
the agitation SET on foot by Jefferson, and counte-
nanced and supported by Washington, Madison,
Henry and other distinguished Southern statesmen
of the Revolutionary period for the abolition OF
Slavery, is mainly to be ascribed to the fact that,
like Archimedes, they had no ground upon which
TO fix their machinery, and whence to carry on
their operations. Hitherto the planting interest
has been entirely predominant throughout the
South and the mercantile and town interest utterly
insignificant There were no towns or next to
none. in which the advocacy of free labor could
organize itself Such towns as existed were but
mere points for collecting the produce Of the
planters and furnishing them with supplies, and the
men engaged in this business sought to secure
planter custom by outdoing each other in humble
submission and Difference to planter dictation st.
Louis is almost the first Southern town which has
ougrown or which has felt itself To have outgrown,
this condition of shop-keepng yasSaage st. Louis
aspires 10 become great commercial city-a cen
ter # trade wealth, arts, literature, science, ee
cancc and cnlightonmcnt-a focusof civilization and
production: and TO become that, her inhabitants
perceive not only the necessity of freedom and
free labor for themselves and within their own
limits but the necessity of freedom and free labor
for the country around them. Comparing Missouri
with Illinois on the east, and Iowa on the north,
the vast advantages of free labor are too palpable
to be overlooked. The citizens Of ST. Louis do
not desire that the State Of Missouri should be-
come a new Alabama, whence, after a settlement
Of from twenty to thirty years, the inhabitants
are now rushing in masses from exhausted and
WORKOUT plantations to find new lands i'll Arkansas
and Texas on which to repeat the same expert
meut. The citizens of ST. Louis have the sagaclty
to perceive that permanent and progressive pros
perity can only rest the basis of free labor; and
perce,ing this, they have had the courage and
the spirit to emancipate themselves from planter
dictation, to proclaim their intention to act up
to their convictions and to see what they can ac-
complish toward doing now what ought to have
been done when the State Constitution was first
formed.
1t is impossible that the example thus set by ST.
Louis should not be followed in other Southern
tovns aud cities. Louisville and Baltimore occupy
II position in the economical aspect of this subject
precisely similar. Though they have always
suffered themselves to be dominerred over
by the planters, free labor and the expul-
sion Of Slavery from the States Of which
they form part is no less their interest than it
is the interest of st. Louis Even New Orleans
itself in which the employment of free labor has
within few wears greatly increased, has sub
stantialy the same interests and will We appre
bend. before long be found occupying much the
same position. Liberty, as was the case with
Christianity will first establish itself in the great