The Yazoo Democrat., 1859-06-11
THE SLAVE TRADE.

subject of the African slave trade, wi regard t.
its morality and the expediency of its bein,
re opened. Certainly NO sane man can cal
immoral traffic in anything which his conscience
tells him is practically and abstractly right tc
hold as property. 1t is fact well established by
observation and experience that the African
negro is an utterly useless creation, except in a
state OF slavery. 1t is equally well established
BY the same means that the negro race is i'm
proved in every particular by dependence on
anothars will If, then, we believe that He who
planned the Universe, who made the world and
placed the various races of men and animals
thereon, and who endowed each species with its
peculiar syncracies-making one inferior to
others-if we believe that this great Being caused
nothing to exist as a mere idle eviuence of power;
we must also surely believe that slavery is right
and intended aJ iaitio Nothing was created to
purpose, and it is aene rational to suppose that
it was the Divine intention for each race of men
to assume that position here in which it can best
advance its own happiness, and coAduce to the
general education of nature and the welfare of
the world. The negro, at large, upon his native
soil, is no remove above an untamed animal on
four legs, and far inferior to domestic beast of
burden in usefulness. 1t would be an insult to
the Deity to suppose such being to be " made
in his own image" 1t would be blasphemous to
assert that He created the African negro merely
to live out an existence of slaughter and cauni-
bAlism.
But there is great staple product of the earth,
which does more than one thing indirectly to civ
ilize and enlighten mankind. That product is
cotton 1t aourishes in the negro's own tropical
heat, and requires cultivation at the very time
when the suns vertical rays are unbearable to all
others except the negro. This, then, is the
element Of the African-the cultivation of cotton
and this race and this product are ndissoluby
connected, as they will be through all time But
the negro will not labor Of his own accord-has
not the talent or industry to toll, produce buy
and sell, or comprehend the operations of com
merce. 1t is therefore obvious that it was the
purpose of Nature that he should labor by com
pulsion, and live life of slavery under taslmas
ters, whose superior minds could direct for the
general good those labors which they should force
him to perform. Accordingly, we have the most |
striking proofs of the great advantage to the
world of the blacks already in the cotton fields
tits too experimenally obvious in the slaveholding
States to require the aid of argument that the
negro is happier when in suhservence to the will
Of another than when free to pursue his own bar
barous incnatons To make the proof more
irresistible that the blacks were created to be
slaves, it is only necessary to cite the fact that in
a state of barbarism they make slaves of each
other. The stnlwart warrior of Africa knows
nothing else than to butcher his captives, or
harness them in a slavery a thousand fold more
exacting and severe than that of the Southern
States. Every indication of nature goes to con-
vince us of her intention that the negro should
bow his neck to the yoke, and what nature in
tends, is morality and right.
That the re-opening of the African slave trade
is expedient is susceptible of proof equally con-
vincing The Federal Union is pecuiar-without
precedent in hstory-and the relation of the
States which compose it to each other is beautiful
and wisely established yet, when attacked at ;
some points, frail and easy TO be sundered. In {
compactness and strength to resist external vo- {
lence, this nation has no superior But once
pervert the spirit of the constitution and miscon J
strue the intention of its framers and no nation
is so mpotent to sustain itself before the expo-
sve elements of internal convulsion We are
divided into Northern and Southern States, and
as we come South we find the cotton soil and an
absolute demand for black slave labor. The con- I
sequence is, of course, if Mississippi can produce
more cotton to the acre than Virginia can, black !
labor is more valuable to her than to Virginia,
and in the absence of foreign importation, her
demand must draw out the negroes of the former. y
The extreme Southern States are yearly increas- "
ing their areas of cotton-growing clearngs, about
every twenty acres of which must have a negro
to cultivate them. If that negro cannot come I
from Africa, he must come from the border States =
and thus are our wants gradually abolitionizing y
those States This process increases in rapidity
in the same ratio that slave territory is enlarged
South. But there are millions of acres Of cotton /
soil which will yet be added to the Union. Mean Z
time, eearing5 for cotton are continually advanc c
ing in the present States Is it not plain there
fore, that if We have not slaves enough already n
here, there will be none to spare for those terri
tories, and they must consequently come in as free
States? This is a consideration which should Ia
give US pause Slave labor being of high price, n
it will not be taken to the Territories where its n
tenure is of doubtful safety. Give new impetus G
10 the traffic which is now shackled and slaves Ia
will become cheap. The present cotton growing
States will soon be in possession of all the labor tt
.hey require, and an abundance Of it will also IS
low into the Territories, which will eventually al
come into the Union as slave States Wherever b.
slavery will pay a constitution will be most popu.
ar which recognizes its rights as property Bring 10
he price of negroes down, and they will nav al
everywhere, and everywhere we will finally find III
hem, where agriculture and not manufactures Sc
employ the population. In view Of these facts !
he re-spenng Of the slave trade must be highly Ut
Important or absolutely necessary to the safety aH
md wel-being Of this section Of the Union. LIT W
he trade be then reopened. If it be not erpe- p
TENT lin the sense that it might endanger the p
Jnion), let it be re-opened in the teeth of disu-