The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1859-10-19
Mai. Rogers Letter


nortant one, and deserves calm rejection and
rigid scrutiny. Having no otherdesire in dis.
cussing it but to advance the inperiled inter
ests of the South, it is our wiskthat it NAV
be thoroughly analyzed in all its bearings. If
the movement is not intrinsically rneritorious
If it does not promise good fruits, upon.free
and logical inquiry-if it win notgiye expan-
sion and stability to Southern inslitutions-it
does not deserve the support q those who
have their perpetuity and wslEse at heart
and ought to be abandoned. Lei the argu-
ment then-the whole argumsa -go before
the people; and then let them decide the issue
according to the preponderance of sound reas-
oning. ....-
Our friend, we know, will pardon brief
word Of comment on his letter. He assumes
what is not literally correct, thai the South
ern Convention "recomniendedthe re-opening
of the African slave trade" What the Con-
sention did, was to declare in favor of the re-
peal of the Federal and State laws prohibiting
the trade, which was simply declaration in
favor of removing the subject from the super
vision of goyernment-an exercise Of prerog-
ative inconsistent with private rights-and Of
superceding the present monopoly by COM
mercial freedom. This sound principle vim
dicated and established, it would then remain
for each individual to decide for himself,
whether or not he would purchase foreign
slaves. If the people are competent to own
slaves, they are competent to decide what
number, kind and quality, they will purchase,
just as they are capable of determining every
other matter of private interest If they do
not want Africans they will hold out no in
ducements to traders to bring them to the
United States. If they do want them, it is
right in morals, politics, and religion, for them
to have the privilege of buying.
The wooftha runs through all the weavings
of the Black Republican argument is that
slavery is wrong and ought not to be perpetu-
ated and that, therefore, it is the duty of the
Federal government to prevent its increase
and expansion by confning it to its present
limits. This same idea is applied, however
hard we may endeavor to blind ourselves to
the fact, in the Federal statutes prohibiting
the slave trade. The government virtually
says that the institution Of slavery is an evil,
and DEGREES that the prime source of it's exist
ence shall be dried up. This Black Republi-
can idea is perversion of divine aw-an out
rage upon truth "a caiumny upon the South
and we trust we will never cease to make
war upon it, whatever convictions touching
the mere policy of importing Africans, may be
wrought upon our minds by future reflection.
If the practical operation of this latter doc
trine as contradistinguished from the Black
Republican doctrine of restriction, will tend
to "Africanize the South" we do not hesitate
to dealare in favor of such result, which we
interpret though, to mean the diffusion of the
institution Of slavery, the enlargement of its
capacity Of gsgulness, the increase of the
aAealk1 aud sSolzss, ana ne er=
pa'asion Of her territorial limits.
Some men talk of "Africanizing' the South,
just as if the Federal laws protected her from
an incursion of worse than Goths and Vandals
ready to effect her rum. They seem to for
get that the Africans are beyond the Atlantic
that they have no power to corae among us
if those laws were repealed, and could not
unless purchased and brought over by the
governing race in this country This race is
intelligent and knows its own interest better
than it is possible for our federal rulers to
understand. "Africanizing the country n'-
AS well talk of deluging it with mules, Yam
kee notions, or anything else our people are in
the habit of supplying themselves with, ac-
cording to the dictates of their necessities and
desires.
Our friend says that the Convention which
formed the Constitution gave to Congress the
power to prohibit the slave trade after 1908.
His and our reading of the Constitution are
widely variant. The Constitution prohibits
Congress from restricting the trade prior to
1903, and does not say that the power to pro-
hibit may be exercised after that period The
clause is limitation of po,Oe,, not grant for
its exercise. The tenth amendment declares
that until the power is delegated it shall not
be exercised !; it has not been delegated, and
the restrictive laws are therefore clearly in
violation of the Federal compact These laws
besides being unconstitutional are oppressive
to the South, and are standing libel upon
her institutions. They outlaw the purchaser
of slave that hapens to have been born in
Africa instead of Virginia brand him as 'pi-
rate" and deny him the protection which
government is created to afford. And in pur-
suance of the same principle which led to the
enactment Of these laws the infamous treaty
with Great Britain was adopted, to which our
correspondent refers, pledging our Govern
ment to keep squadron of not less than 80
guns, on the African coast, at an immense an
nual expenditure Of lives and money-at the
constant hazard Of the peaceful relations of the
two Governments-and in disregard of the
earlier policy of the Republic, which forbade
entangling alliances with foreign nations.
Our correspondent says that when these
laws were passed slavery was almost univer-
sally regarded ''as an evil" Precisely so
And this false notion originated the Black Re-
publican policy of branding the foreign trade
as robbery. and prohibiting the increase and
expansion Of the institution. But with the
rejection of this error, let US be wise enough to
do away with the injurious legislation which
was founded upon it.
Our venerable friend admits the force of one
of the reasons in favor of the foreign trade,
when he surrenders himself to the agrarian
remedy of compelling division of slave prop
erty, so as to equalize its benefits among those
who are expected to uphold and protect it.
The whole number Of shareholders in the
South is but three hundred and fifty thous-
and. We do not wonder that this fact ap-
peals powerfully in favor of the numerical ex-
tension of slavery, but we are astonished that
any such radical and Objectionable measure
should be proposed, when the great end sought
to be accomplished by it could be 50 easily
attained without breaking up the foundations
Of property rights, simply by re-opening the
slave trade, and giving the rich and the poor
the world for market, as our forefathers had
before us.
ARRIVAL OF SENATOR GwN.-Among the
arrivals by the Empire City yesterday even
ing was Senator VIM. M. Gwin, of California.
He came from San Francisco by way Of Pan
| 4 Asn;nwaiI and proceeded as far as Key West,
taking the Empire City for New Orleans. :
Delta. 13A. ~
RAILROAD Aco1DENT.-The freight train 60
ing south ran off the track between Macon and
Shuqulak, on Last wednesday, making 70.