The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-02-10

number of slaves have but few white people
Georgetown district, in South Carolina, for in
stance, with 1928 slaves, had in 1850 only
2,l93 white people while Spartanburgh, with
1871 white people, had but 5000 slaves.
whites If we leave out half dozen of the
upper counties of the State, in which the white
population largely predominates, the slaves will
more than double the whites and yet we are
told that the demand for more slave labor is so
imperative, that the African trade must be re-
vived in order to supply it. What, then, would
be the condition of things in that State, if the
demand for labor were supplied by unrestricted
importations from Africa? Can any rational
man doubt that the disparity between the races
would be increased by double process? The
blacks would become far more numerous, while
the whites, by emigration, would be reduced in
numbers until none would remain but masters
and overseers. similar state of things would
take place in a very few years in Georgia, Ala
! bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida; and
Texas would soon follow in the same career.
II woSld be an aggravation of the evil, that,
intermiXed with these savages, a mass of civil
sized American-born negroes would be equal
'partakers of their expressions. Between the
intelligence of the one class and the ferocity of
the other, the white people of the South would
live in continual dread and alarm.
But the Gulf States would not be the only
sufferers. The older slave States would be
equal sufferers. They now find a market and
IN outlet for their surplus slaves in the South
vest. They at once send away what it would
be dangerous as well as Improbable to keep,
and get wen paid for it. They receive enor-
nous prices for their surplus slaves, under the
present protective, or rather prohibitive, sys-
em and it will be understood at once that the
epeal of the prohibition would be the ruin of
he domestic trade. The African slave can
,e imported and .sold at one-ffth Of what it
,osts to rear Virginia slave for the market,
md hence the domestic product though supe-
zior to the foreign, would be driven out of the
market by the enormous difference in the price.
he old slave States would therefore lose the
market they now enjoy for their surplus slaves
a, rather for their annual crop of slaves and
hey would at the same time be compelled to
seep that which safety and economy require
4 lem to dispose of. They would in a few years
Es overrun with negroes and the poor whites,
g. the increasing competition of slave labor,
could be driven to emigrate
= The South would be thoroughly Africanized
= this scheme of reviving the slave trade, sup
)sing it feasible, and carried on to the extent
which its enthusiastic friends contemplate
..he white population now predominates in all
Fat one or two States, but, under the circum-
canoes supposed, the numerical ascendency of
tie blacks would be complete in all of them in
4 course of a generation or two; and in the
pre- Southern States they would outnumber
Z, things, well might the South say, with JEFF
,..>son, u tremble when l reflect that God is
j st, and that his justice cannot sumber for
& err
The idea Of the Gulf States seeding from
TIE Union, and forming Southern Confederacy,
with a tier of slave States shielding them from
tn Northern free States, is about as absurd as
a eything connected with this notable scheme of
re living the slave trade. Such a Confederacy
wz.uld~ be an aggregation Of weakness, suppo
sp-g that its formation were possible. A slave
he lding Republic in this age, with no free States
t9.lean upon for support, is a shallow conceit,
wsich could only originate in the brain of the
pc ted and pampered oligarchs who have ruled
ths country for thirty years by dint of buster
and gasconade. And the idea that such Re-
public could carry on the slave trade, in defiance
ofahe civilized world, is the climax of folly and
pr sumption If the whole South were turned
lose to-day, and permitted peaceably to organ
izt separate Government it would not dare
to Siolate the treaties into which, as a part of
the Union, it has entered for the suppression of
the slave trade. At present, under the shelter
of the powerful North, it sets laws and treaties
at'defance; but thrown on its responsibility, it
would crouch at the feet of the British lion and
show an alacrity in the enforcement of the anti
slave-trade statutes which it now tramples under
foot
Equally silly and presumptuous is the boast
thtt a Southern Republic would annex Mexico
AMI Cuba. Separated from the North, the slave
holders would never for a moment indulge such
DRAINS; and we will venture the prediction.
that should such Republic ever be formed, it
will be characterized by nothing so mnch as by a
cautious respect for international laws and trea-
tie3. The only safety of a slaveholding Repub-
licsSn this age and in this northern hemisphere
would be found in a strict observance of inter
nalional obligations 1t would be an easy prev
to che first rude and strong hand that should
asfail it and it would probably seek for safety
and support in return to colonial vassalage to
6 raat Britain.
IN expressing these views of the necessary
weakness of a slaveholding Republic we have
no wish or purpose to cast slur upon the char
acter of the Southern people. We byno means
regard them as cOwardly, or wanting in spirit.
On the contrary, we give them credit for the
fuls Anglo-Saxon proportion of those virtues.
Blu brave men must submit to circumstances :
ans no amount of courage will compensate for
the inherent weakness and peril of Slavery.
Slavery was regarded, during the Revolution.
as n matter of course. 1t had not been de-
notnced by the civilized world as nhuman and
barbarous, and its victims had not been indulg-
ing for a whole generation the hope of Free
dola, founded upon what they were told of a
| syr7pathizing world; yet such was the weakness
of South Carolina, that her patriotic citizens
| wee able to render no aid to the common cause
am. had to be protected against their own dis
AFFECTED slaves. The same drawback was felt
Throughout the South and the public records
ATTEST that the South was far from supplying its