New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-11-10
had 81 hundred dollars the head, a. though that
would do any good 20 poserty-stricken individuals

who could No. raise if.y dollars 10 save themselves
from hanging. We gaze some time since al ac-
count Of Mr.. Sprstts report to the South Carolina
Ler;sla,ure IN f,yor Of the revival Of the African
slsve.trade, and Of Mr. Petigrew's counter report
in opposition TO tia. project. Well, the result ms
been that. while Mr.. Sprstt ia rechosen to the
Legislature by very large vote, Mr. PettIgre" T"
len cui-another indication of the growing Popu-
laIity Of tbs new project.
Though II i. not a whit more absurd 70 SCI Up
the reviya. Of the African trade a. a Panacea Tor
Southern poverty and desttution than It IS to 'e'
I'D the maintenance Of the actually existing slave
:, item ~ tue only solid basis OF Republican in'l-
tutions snd demOc,stica Liberty, il is nevertheless
certain to be hotl, opposed by the entire body Of
the existing Shareholders, with the exception Of
few demseoge-, few enthusiasts, and larger
number of individuals desperately involved IN DEBT
and ready to catch at any straw to save them
selves. The revival Of the African saTe-trade
would be in factif not equivalent to an entire con-
f-cstion Of the existing property in slaves, which
CONSTITUTES smostthe entire property Of the South
at least equivalent 10 q reduction Of its value, ifty
sixty, seventy or eighty per cent The
existing shareholders could hardly get worse
treatment at the hsnds OF Mr. Garrison
himself The great sayebreeding interest OF
Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina would
be utterly extinguished by it, and instead of the
glorious times referred to 90 feelngly by Gov.
Wise, when Virginia niggers were to bring FIVE
thousand dollars @ head the owners Of this sort OF
stock might realize the misfortune foretold by
John Randolph, and find themselves obliged to run
away from their own negroes TO escape the eS-
pense of feeding and clothing them.
The existing Shareholders will no doubt, resist
this project for breaking down their monopoly
with desperate energy; but what can their feeble
numbers avail against the aroused cupidity and
Pro-Slayery enthusiasm of the great body of non
shareholders? We mad occasion to show in 8 re-
cent article that there were in Maryland, when
the last census was taken, out of d total white
population Of All ,942, only 5000 shareholders,
and considerable number of them, no doubt, were
women and minors. OF these 5000 Shareholders.
lOlJ6 were owners Of hut from one to four slaves
generally, it may be supposed, servant-woman
upward-the slayeh0lding cultvators-were, there
fore, only 5,-54 in the State Of Maryland. What
stand could these few monopoists, as John Mitchell
calls them, make against the aroused avarice and
ambition Of the overwhelming mass OF the nom
shareholders The same state OF things which
exists in Maryland exists substantially in all the
slayeholdng States. The body Of non-slayeholders
in those States have been and too utterly
ignorant and unenlightened to be able to compre-
bend how entirely their own degraded condition
grows out of the institution Of Slavery. Indeed,
from that passion of undiscpined human nature,
the pleasure of seeing classbelow them over whom
they can assume airs Of superiority, they have
been and still to large extent are among the most
bigoted supporters of the institution of Slavery.
Now, the fonder they are Of Slavery, the more
zealously will they enter into the project for the
revival of the African slave-trade. 1t is precisely
the glded and tempting bait to catch just such
gudeeons Thus will the shareholders who
have lsbored night and day 70 instill into
the poor whites about them, hatred of
negroes and zeal for the peculiar institu-
ton, find this very zeal which they have kin
died, and spent their breath In blowing into
flame, suddenly breaking forth with unexpected
fury and setting the whole house on fire. Whether
the unlucky slayebreeders and shareholders will
be able to extinguish the confsgration they have
thus kindled remains to be seen. At the present
moment they are undergoing just punishment for
having attempted to exalt Slavery into the place
of liberty. They are much in the position of
the unfortunate Acteon, who found himself
all at once transformed into stag, and set upon
and torn to pieces By his own hounds. That is a
work for which, under the training they have I'M
dergone in hunting down Abolitionists, the non-
shareholders of the South are eminently fitted.
We shall see what hand our unfortunate neighbors
make at putting down this new domestic and Irish
instruction.