Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-11-11
NO. As.

| S0utn was, tnat sne DeneVeQ slavery 70 pe
an evil-weakness-disgrac sin.
She shrunk from the discussion Of It,, She
covered under every threat. She attempt
ed to apologize, to excuse herself, under the
plea-wbich was true-that England had
forced it upon her; and in fear and trembling
she awaited doom that she deemed inevi-
table. But few bold spirits took the ques.
ton up: they compelled the South to inyes-
tigate it anew and thoroughly, and what is
the result? Why, it would be difficult to
find now Southern man who feels the sys-
tenn to be the slightest burthen on his con-
science; who does not, in fact, regard it as
an equal advantage to the master and the
slave, elevatiug both, as wealth, strength and
power and as one of the main pillars and
controlling influences of modern civilization;
and who is net now prepared to maintain it
at every hazard Such have been for us the
happy results of this abolition discussion
So far, our gain has been immense from this
contest, savage and malignant as it has been.
Nay, we have solved already the question Of
emancipation by this re.examination and ex-
position Of the false theories Of religion,
philanthropy and political economy which
embarrassed our fathers in their day. With
our convictions and eur strength, emancipa.
tion here is simply an impossibility to man,
whetherby persuasion, purchase or coercion.
The rock of Gibraltar does not stand so firm
on its basis as our slave system. For omar
ter of century it has borne the brunt of a
hurricane as fierce and pitiless as ever ragged.
At the North and in Europe they cried
"haroc" and let loose upon US all the dogsof
war. And how stands it now Why, in
this very quarter of century our slaves
have doubled in numbers, and each slave
has more than doubled in value. The very
negro who, as prime laborer, would have
brought s4O0 in 1928, would now, with thiF-
ty more years upon him, sell for $780,
What does all this mean? Why, that our
selves we have settled this question Of ennan-
cipation against all the world, in theory aud
practice, and the world must accept our So
luton. The anly inquiry is, how long this
new-found superstition will survive, and how
fari may carry its votaries elsewhere? What
changes in production, in commerce. in SO.
ciety or government it may effect? For
production, commerce, society and govern.
ment, must yield and change whenever they
come in contact with the great fundamental
principle of the subordination Of the fpfe-
rf0r 10 the superior muu.-as muus by nvt5
and especially of the colored to the whites
races. 1t is, I say, only through the evils
that this superstition may bring upon other
peoples, and especially on those Of the North
and of Europe, with whom we are so closely
connected, that the South can be materially
damaged by it, standing as she now does,
firm, assured, united. How, then is it with
others !?
Permit me to say that, in my opinion, the
tide of abolition fanaticism has begun to ebb
everywhere, and will never rise again.
When the English free the negroes fn their
colonies, it was not wholly sentimental
movement dictated by political radicals and
the saints of Exeter Hall. Her statesmen,
in their ignorance, thought that what is call.
ed free labor-that is "wages slavery
would succeed in tropical culture, as well'or
better than slave labor In their arrogance
they believed also that all the world must
follow their example in this silly scheme of
abolition and that from her great wealth
and world.encircling colonies, the monopoly
of cotton and sugar culture would fall into
the hands of England. Nature, and the in
domitable spirit and intellect of the South,
have disappointed all their calculations. The
South still Aourishes, and cotton and sugar,
and coffee and rice and tobacco, are still the
heritage of the shareholders.
Called by their utter dependence upon US
for cotton, without the free use Of which
they would both tumble into ruin in day,
England and France, who, in their frequent
frenzies, at length destroyed all their colo
MES by emancipation, have ransacked the
universe to fpd climes adapted to the cheap
growth Of this great staple. They have fail
ed every where. 1t is not that the soils aud
climates do not exist; but that this and the
other great agricultural staples, sugar, rice,
tobacco, coffee, can never be produced as
articles of wide extended commerce, except
by slave labor. This they at length found
out But such labor they had repudiated
every where. No, not everywhere. Not in
France nor in Great Britain, where they
still hold sacred splendid thrones and palmy
aristocraces amid starving laborers, only for
outside barbarians they adorned freedom and
equality but failing in all their schemes,
and finding that, with all their costly expen-
ditures and high sounding manifestos, they
had simply ruined their own colonies, and
made themselves the vassals of the slave.
holders, what have they dcne? Why, re-
newed the slave trade. Not in name. Oh,
no Exeter Hall and the Parliament Houses
still thunder execrations against that while
the colonists, under governmental protection,
and with English money, wruug by taxation
from her "wages slaves" are importing by
hundreds of thousands Chinese and Hindoo
coolies, under conditions compared with
which Algerine slavery Of the last century
was merciful. They do not hold them as we
do our slaves, for better for worse, in SICK
ness and health, in childhood and old age.
No; in their prime of life, they seduce them
from their homes, transport them to distant