The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1858-09-09
NO. sS.

Hence we are not surprised to end in
Tile So"tllern CHltic0tOr Tor August an e.
laboratc argument in favor of re e-opening
the African SlaVeTrade, by its editor,
DR.. Daniel Lee, formerly Wing in Buf.
falo and an American editor in Rochester,
N. Y. The DR.. seems to have got brave
ly over the radicalsm of his greener days
and thus expatiates
"Ibe most striking features and appa-
rent defeats, in Southern agricultural Ia
Dor, have their origin not in the nature Of
negro Slavery, but in legislative restric-
tious and prohibitions. by which this sys-
tenn of productive industry was tied down
in 1903, and finally made piracy By an
act of Congress 1t was gratuitously as
sumed BY Mr.. Jefferson, DR.. Franklin,
and other eminent patriots Of the Rsyo-
luton, that the curse of an offended Deity
rested on this system Of labor; and to full
fill, or at least give the semblancc of truth
to this sinister yatieination, tie FIVE great
powers Of Europe, every Administration
from that Of Washinton to the present in
elusive. the literature and the clergy of
the civilized wor d, have combined their
best efforts for the last half century. e.
Truth and the God Of truth have a.
lone been adequate to defeat the Anti
Slavery purposes of the leading Govern
ments Of the civilized world since they
pronounced the trade in African negroes a
crime, and affixed thereto the outawing
and death penalty awarded to pirates
1t was assumed at the close of the Revo-
luton that laboring white men were bet-
ter than African. whether slaves or free,
to develop the agricultural resoarcs Of the
whole continent, and that negroes we're
curse to the country. 1t was in this spir-
it, at time when twelve Of the thirteen
original States held slaves, that the fa-
nous Ordinance of 1857, introduced into
the Continen ntal Congress by Mr.. Jefer-
son, was passed, which the Free States of
Ohio, Indiana. Illinois, Michigan aud Wis
consin have since been formed. Instead
of allowing Southern planters to go into
the markets Of the world TO purchase ne
gro latorers on the best terms they could
find, the supply of these laborer5 was
rudely cut off, as though to buy slave
for agricultural purposes was one of the
worst Of crimes This faDatical dirtation
has ever Kept the supply of planting op
eratives at the South far below what it
would have been had this great iddustri-
al interest been wisely permitted to regu-
late it operations by the just and natural
laws of trade. By despotically setting
aside these salutary laws of supply and
demand, our tiIlage processes have been
carried ou to great disadvantage; and one
of the most obvious effects has been a
continuous effort to make the most Of a
comparatively little labor by extending
it over too much surface of SOIL
There are three or four pages of the
CulttratOf in this vein, but We need no.
quote them to show the drift of the arti-
Gle. We desire only to show that the
purpose of re- opening the Slave-Trade is
entertained By strong and rap
idly increasing party at the South, and
that the arguments they use cannot be an
swered without self conviction By any To-
gical advocate of the Nebraska BILL Here
is one more passage, with which We must
close:
"If to buy or sell the labor of appren-
tees for life is im moral, then it should be
at once discontinued; but It is not wrong,
the advantages to accrue therefrom should
be not less available in Africa than in
Virginia. The Slave Trade is either car
ried altogether too far for our credit and
and interest, or not far enough to do any
thing like justice to our system of agricul-
tural industry. Either give it fair
chance to live, and grow with the COM
nerce and influx of Europeans, or else
carry out the Anti-Slavery policy of the
founders of the Republic. The former is
lie wiser course of the two; and it is one
ThiSh is most likely to prevail" =" tT
If that be not as full Of cogency as an
,gg is of meat We are greatly mistaken
How long can majority be expected to
1old out against it in Slave State, aud
specially in a young, thiDly- -peopled, ne
yro.buyins Slave State!