The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-01-21

science, makes vast change in regard to
opinions that were held at the beginning Of
the present century az to the true social
status of the negro race. Thirty years ago
the sage Humboldt emitted opinions and
hopes in regard to the probable
advance of St. Domingo and other negro com
munities in America, which time has COM
pletely disappointed. In fact, the citation OF
writer's of the last generation against the facts
and figures of the present day, as developed in
the history of negro emancipation and coloni-
cation everywhere, is very much like citing
Moses to disprove the discoveries of Lyell,
Agassiz and other biologists and naturalists OF
the age.
The question of negro emancipation, in the
abstract, admits of no argument now, for it has
already been reduced to question of practical
results. By what has occurred in the British
and French West Indies, in St. Domingo and
Spanish America, we can measure the results
that Master Seward and his clique would achieve
for the United States They have not only
passed from the list of wealth producing COM
munities, but, with their material welfare, their
political weight has passed away. In the family
Of nations there are now but two American
Powers that have any social vitality or indus
trial value. These are our own Union and
Brazil; and they owe their Importance in a
very great measure, if not entirely, to the fact
that they have preserved the institution OF
negro slavery. Without it we should pro-
duce no cotton, and Brazil no coffee
or sugar for the production of these
articles is not question of soil
and climate only, but of the organization Of
the labor of the only race that can Withstand
the burning sun of the tropics, combined with
and directed by the superior intelligence of the
white Neitherrace can produce either of these
staples of the tropics, in such large quantities
as the world now demands, without the assist
ance Of the other.
If, therefore, we emaRcipate and emigrate the
four millions of slaves that now produce cot
ton, sugar and tobacco in this country, we
strike deadly blow at our material prosperity,
and through that at our political significance
Take away these three staples from our indus
trial production and foreign commerce, and
what do we become? Nothing but wheat and
iron producing community, with the same
character and resources as the nations o!
Northern Europe, and fitted only to enter into
competition with them for the trade of those
countries which might produce the very arti-
Giles that we now bear the palm in. The textile
industry of New England must be abandoned
or go abroad. competing with other nations for
its material; the vast shipping interest we now
possess must seek its remuneration in
other ports than our own; the grain and
meat producing West, deprived of the
markets now afforded by the South,
must depend upon failure of the
crops and famine in Europe to dispose of its
superabundance; every branch Of home indus
try would participate largely in the ruin and
decay of the South, and we should be reduced
to the condition Of third or fourth rate nation
in the balance of the world.
These are no idle Vaccinations. History has
demonstrated their truth in the barbarism that
has already engulphed many Of the West India
republic where slavery once existed is fast re-
lapsing. The material government that now
rules France has recognized them, and is en-.
deavoring to restore her dilapidated American
colonies by return to system of involuntary
domestic servitude by native Africans. Eng.
land is contemplating a similar organization OF
tropical labor and European skill, in bringing
vast numbers of Hindoos to the wasted and
abandoned fields of Jamaica. But whatever
results these may produce, We have still a
greater danger to encounter. England and
France, in opening the labor crowded commu.
mites of India and China to the ingress and di-
rection OF European science and mechanical
skill, are preparing for us great industrial
conflict in the not distant future. For this we
may need all our energies and all our power.
The abolition fanatics, who, in view of these
facts, are striving anew to agitate the public
mind with the question of negro emancipation
and to strike a deadly blow at our brethren in
the South, are guilty of high treason against u:
as q nation. They would not only destroy
for the mere sake of political agitation and
personal smbition-our national Union and
prosperity, but they would avert forever that
high destiny which We proudly claim as pccu-
liarly our own. In carrying the United States
into that wild and fanatical vortex which has
swallowed up so many Of our congenite
American nations, they would deprive the
American branch of the Teutonic race of that
vitality which now inspires its triumphant
career on this continent Anglo-Saxon progress
in America would sink at once to the level Of
Spanish American decay should they succeed
in destroying our present organization Of
tropical labor with Anglo-Saxon skill, and re.
duce us as wealth producing country to the
same natural laws that limit the industry Of
Europe. We commend the schemes Of Master
Seward aud his clique TO the serious considera-
tion Of every patriotic American.
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