Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-06-12
EMIGRATION FROM AFRICA.


Tho people Of Char esion, rot to be outdonr in
novelties, ave, il appears, cnJeavored to try the
)pculng ct the slave trade through n device for
iHkltg OK hoatd African emigrAuts, in accordance
with the United States passenger laws, and re
turning with the same to a port in the IT,. States.
he Messrs. Lafttc, of that city, Gtted out the ship
Golden ut the port OF Charleston, for that
purpose, and ormally applied for a clearance to
the collector, but the Secretary of the Treasury
sends the parties Il letter furbidding the clearance,
ana citing Rn act of Congress of 1897 rs conclu-
slve against it. The Charleston Mercury calls this
an act Of uSurpation, aud declares that the right OF
emigration from Africa is as clear as that of eihi.
grafton from Hamburg or liverpool. Messrs. La
ittc also authorize thnt paper to state that they
will, in n few days, publish their own views in re-
ply to the Secretary's letter"
The Secretasy's letter forbidding the clearance
might, in our opinion, have been made very brief
aud pointed, SO much so as to save Messrs. Laftte
the trouble of heightened argument by way ofre
Joinder. Emigrants from any part of Europe are
presumed to come of their own volition, and to
seek position as citizens at once. Will the people
OF Charleston place q ship load from the African
coast IN the footing when arrived, that one from
llayre would stand upon? II u vessel departs from
Charleston to go for IL load Of emigrants to the Al
rican coast, is not this the importation especially
named in the act of 1907? Have the tenants of the
bnrracoons on that coast written to their friends
and relatives in South Carolina expressing a de.
sire to e~migrate, or have those of African ancestry
written out to their cousins in the barracoons, ur-
ging them to take passage by the Richard Colder,
ii il shall come to their coast? We will venture
that the Charleston rost-lficc has passed no such
letters for years. The earnest appeals mutually
sent to and from the old Countries north of the
equator have no parallel in the dark la,itudes; be-
sides, the mail gemepts in the barracoon re-
gion are 50 defective that the Richard Golden
might take out a heavy mail Of the sort without
being able to deliver it.
Charleston gains nothing by this discreditable
dodge toward reyiying the slave trade. The wri.
ter admits as much, and also admits that il was the
slave trade, and nothing else, which the Messrs.
LATTE and others were, and are yet, after. As the
Mercury well says, if the law Of 1907 shall not be
found to hold water, the troublesome people of the
North will make another that will, and spoil the
enterprise as soon as it is fairly inaugurated.-
Whilst the Union continues, as the Mercury urges,
the prospect for regular clearances to and from the
barracoon coast is exceedingly discOuraging, the
efforts made inCharleston or elsewhere to the con.
trary. We are clearly now at the zero of our morale
on the slave trade question, and the lapse of two OF
three years will show a return of something Of the
old feeling which prevailed from 1903 to 1850
The Messrs. Laftte must not be too hasty in fol
lowing the footsteps of their namesakes who, in
the Gulf, reigned before the fleets of any nation
were strong enough to suppress piracy.-PhHa. ~
american.