The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-01-13

4 Claims? Or to the Commlttee on ways ana
I Means? We shall watch this case for Mr..
Oscar J. Z. Stewart, and he shall have the
benefit of our assistance. He shall have the
hard cash for his ringers" brain work as
/ well as for his nigger's" handicraftiness, and
much good NAV it do him-Ne,c York Tribune
From The Montgomery (Ala) Daily Advertiser.
I THE SLAVE TRADE.
We learn from private sources that subp9-
mas have been served upon several planters in
Georgia, suspected of having purchased por-
tons of the recently-landed cargo of the yacht
Wanderer These gentlemen are to appear at
Savannah as witness on the trial of the crew of
the SLAYER. We hope that the affair will be
rigidly investigated, and that all those who NAV
Il prove to be directly engaged in the landing of
\ the Africans may meet with punishment due
\ their infraction of the law. We candidly con-
Y TESS that when the revival of the African slave
trade was first agitated, we were indisposed to
condemn the measure with the severity to which
we now believe the scheme to by Justly entitled.
Smarting under sense of Northern Injustice,
and viewing with mournful feelings the unequal
struggle between handful of Southern heroes
and the hordes of Northern marauders upon the
plains of Kansas, we were at first disposed to
give favorable consideration to any scheme
that promised relief from the nuSnerical iuie-
riority under which we labor in contending with
the freesoil hosts. Since then, mature and
careful consideration of the subject has con-
WINGED us that the revival of the African slave
trade would be a death-b blow to the vital inter
ests of the South.
We oppose it upon grounds of humanity, as
well as policy. Not the humanity that causes
the hypOcritical tears of the Beechers and Sum
ners of the North; not the humanity that
causes the tender hearts of very many Of our
Southern citizens to consider Slavery Temporal
rs and nee essary evil; but upon motives of hu-
manity that we derive from a careful consdera-
ton of the very foundation of the proposed traf,
hc-from a knowledge of the means that must
necessarily be employed in obtaining the ne
grOes that are to be deported to our shores.
There are few of our readers that have not had
occasion to view with a plying eye the inevta-
bic separation of THE slave mother and SON
nay even the husband and wife. Happily such
events are of rare occurrence, but are still occa-
sionally to be bewaied. 1t is one of the glories
and the blessings of our system of labor, that
these sunderngs of the bonds of natural affec-
ton are less frequent in the South than perhaps
in any other portion of the globe. For one
Slave family that is thus rudely dismembered,
hundreds Of the poorer classes of the North are
forced by bitter necessities to separate, and go
forth singly to combat the demon of hunger and
nakedness. Family separation is a grevous
thing, even when restrained by the kindest
and wisest laws that ever protected the laborer
But what would our readers think of the de-
struction of a whole town by its neighbors, in
order to sell remnant of its inhabitants ?
What would they think of the alliance of three
counties of our State, for the purpose of war
ring upon and conquering a fourth county, for
the sake of gain And yet it is by bloodshed,
and fire, and rapine, that the slave ships of At
RIGA are to be filed. The aborigines of the
Guinea coast are not class civilized, and al
read. in servitude. They are not aware of the
blessings conferred upon their unfortunate race,
when made the slaves of a superior order of be-
ings. They are aware that the white sailors on
the coast will pay a large sum for every sound
African. And so each chief is at all times
ready to march upon his ncighbor, to burn and
destroy, to encounter the desperate resistance
of the Infatuated, brutal fellow-negro to kill
hundreds in the endeavor to capture dozen /:
and all for the purpose of furnishing n cargo
for the slave ship. That it. would be better if
every African had a Southern master, we all
admit; better for him in this world and the
next But that it is justifable to encourage the
murder of one hundred Africans in the endeav-
or to bring dozen of them under masters
care, is an absurd and inhumah idea.
The advocates Of the slave trade contend that
to bring a cargo Of Africans from Congo is
precisely the same as to bring the same num-
Der from Virginia. And yet, in bringing ne
groes from Virginia, we transfer them from the
hands of one kind master to those of another /;
while in the other case, we encourage the de
struction of three human beings for the gain of
the services of one. One is rational, wise hu-
name, and legal barter the other is murder
We are not willing to encourage bloodshed,
even among british savages, for the aggrand-
izement of few ship-owners. We are not
willing that those cruelties that we have emu
merated should be carried on in the name of
the South, and for the Ostensble benefit of
Southern interests. In the name of Southern
civilization and enlightenment, we protest
against the slave trade and its concomitant
horrors. In the name Of fourishing, pros
porous, and all-powerful Southern Confederacy
OF States, we denounce scheme that is fraught
with every mis- chief that can degrade and
weaken a nation.
/ CT M