The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-10
BALTIMORE.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1853.

We published few days ago a telegram from
New Orleans, announcing the passage of a bill by
the House OF Representatives of Louisiana, to per
init the importation of twenty-five hundred free
negro apprentices f ON the Coast of Africa into
that State. To-day we re-pubsh from the
New Orleans Dettd an article which recently ap-
peared in that paper on the subject of the revival
of the Slave Trade. The action of the Louisiana
Legislature appears to have stirred up quite tenn
pest in a teapot among the more rabid ant-slavery
journalists of the North, who denounce in set terms
the whole project as unconstitutional and ILLEGAL.
and invoke the interference of the Federal Govern
ment to prevent the consummation of scheme
which they hold amounts to nothing less than
piracy under the acts of Congress. In their excess
sive zeal for the cause of philanthropy and human
ity these good gentlemen forget that emigration is
not the slave trade Our ports are open to all the
world and our land free to all corners. We have
no laws to forbid the ngress of emgrants of every
race and clime-whether barbarouS or civilized
black white-whether from Africa or Europe
We are not aware therefore of any legal or con-
Stitutonal impediments in the way of the nroduc-
ton of free black agricultural laborers into the
where. The considerations of policy and expedi-
ency involved in the scheme are of such magnitude
however, to require seperate considerations and
fuller discussion than it is our present purpose to
bestow upon the subject.
The facts stated by the Delta with respect to the
existence of an actual entrepo for slaves Pearl
river, and direct trade between Mississippi and
the slave coast, if generally credited, would not
fail 10 create yet greater excitement in the public
mind. For some unexplained reason, however
the very journalists, who might naturally have
been expected to fasten with most avidity upon this
revelation Of the total depravity aud incurable
wickedness of the South have treated the matter
with the greatest indifference, and dismissed it as
wholly unworthy of a moments consideration
The Delta's story had been pronounced an unmit-
gated hoax No advantage has been taken of the
opportunity afforded to prejudice the popular mind
at the North still more bitterly against the South
Yet what in comparison is bleeding Kansas" to
9 bleeding Africa Where are the Wilberforces
and the Channings of the present generation, and
what has become of the philo-negroism OF LLOYD
Garrison and of Wendell Phillips and why is the
muse of Whittier silent? The worst excuses of
ruHIlnlSln are lender mefclcS compared
with the cruelties of the slave trade-the darkest
pictures of plantation life afford no parallel TO the
horrors of the middle Passage and the squalid
misery of the negro-quarters is comfort and happi-
ness compared with that of the save-pen and the
slave-deck. Gentlemen philanthropiss, your 81
lence is ominous. The whole story is a fabrication
you say-a cunning invention of the enemy, de
signed to influence legislative action in Louisiana
Perhaps it may be true for all that We know
nothing about the depot on Pearl river, but we
happen TO have very good reason for believing that
tie save-trade has existed and does exist between
the Gulf coast of the United States and the Slave
coast of Africa, and perhaps the completely of
Northern merchants as well as Southern planters in
the traffic, is the true reason why so little is said
by Northern journalists the subject Now as
nifty years ago, there are two parties engaged in
the business, as in every other trafic-buyers and
sellers. The men who purchase and work the
slaves may be planters of Mississippi and Louisi-
ana, but the men who own and fit out the vessels
in which the trade is carried on, who ship the car
goes in the Blight of Benin, and run them" it
may be, at the mouth of the Pearl river are honest
merchants and thrifty capitalists of New York and
New England.