The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-06
A SHARP REMEDY.

| The domestic slave trade presents one Of the
most odious and abhorreut features Of the srs.
tenn, of which it is an incident It tramples on
the rights of human nature with the most reck.
less disregard of every tender tie of family, Of
home, and of Friendship. 1t degrades its vic
Tins to the level of british beasts, and IL, in.
struments to that of fends in human shane
| The dealer in human flesh is a rational being
without conscience, or sense Of neral oblira
tom whose ears are deaf to the voice of pity.
and whose nerves are strung against the cries
of human woe. He, apparently without re.
morse, separates husbands and wives, parents
and children and in response to the least
murmur of agenized hearts, he in1icts terrible
curses and blows. Such is the domestic slave.
trade, as it exists by law in the Southern
States.
But terrible as is this traffic in its moral as.
poets, it seems 10 be, in the hands of Prov.
dence, powerful engine for the overthrow Of
Slavery itself The high prices paid for the
great Southern staples, cotton and sugar, and
especially the former, has created great de,
mand for labor in the Gulf States, and the
habits and prejudices of the planters call for
slave labor This demand is so great and the
price of negroes has risen so high, that great
numbers Of Southerners unblushingly call for
a repeal of the laws which prohibit the foreign
slave trade; and as is believed, they have
actually begun the importation of slaves in Vi
olation of the laws. But these laws cannot be
repealed, and the Illicit trade has not, and
never can supply tenth of the demand for Ia.
bor The consequence is, that the slave own.
ers of the more northern slave States including
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennes
see, Kentucky, and Missouri, are tempted by
the high prices to sell out their slaves to the
cotton and sugar planters Of the Gulf States,
and to substitute free labor in its place.
Between the years 1880 and l84O this drain
upon the older States was so great, that even
Virginia declined in the number of her slaves
in the ten years, above twenty thousand. But
if we are to credit the accounts which reach US
daily from these Northern slave States, and par
ticularly from Missouri and Virginia, the exc
dus of twenty-five years ago was nothing to
that which is now taking place. Pro-Slavery
and AntiSlavery papers in these border States
concur in their accounts Of the unprecedented
expectation or removal Of the slave population
to the extreme South. Their descriptions sug-
gest the idea of a great breaking up of society,
and wholesale removal of the black race, and
their accounts would be incredible but for the
enormous prices paid for negroes.
The Richmond (ya.) Wing, quoting and an,
dorsing the statement of a North Carolina paper,
represents the sale and removal of slaves to the
South as being carried to the extent of paral-
izing agricultural operations in those States.
They say that the planters in those farming
States can no longer think of buying slaves to
cultivate their fields, and that much land will
lie fallow in consequence of the inadequate sup
ply of labor; while, if the Southern demand
for slaves continues, those old States will be
entirely drained of their slaves soon enough"
" Missouri WHITENING OUT-Free labor is
rapidly drowning slave labor out of Missouri.
A st. Louis paper of the 10th saws one hundred
and fifty negroes arrived there from the int.
riOr, bound south, and upwards of one hundred
are leaving daily. The Lexington Express, Of
Missouri, states that there is scarcely county
in that part of the State but what has its slave
bsyers for the South, and that the adult slave
"The st. Louis Democrat SAYS that every boat
brings groups of slaves down the river from the
interior, on the way to the South A gentle
man residing at St. Joseph tells rs that. within
three months, half the slaves in that town and
vicinity have disappeared - some across the
river on their own account, and the rest down
stream at the instance Of their owners If the
present exodus continues, there will not be
thousand slaves lett in the State of Missouri in
four years from this time
The st. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette, a Pro Slavery
paper, speaking of the decrease of the slaves in
that section of the States, says:
1t is probable that there has been positive
decrease in the slave population ofmany of the
northwest counties at time when we had
hoped to see it multiplied. Yet we think, with
proper precautions on the part of the masters,
there is little reason for uneasiness on the part
of owners but we would caution all to be more
prudent and wary than many appear to be. If
negroes are suffered to run at will, las many
permit) and have intercourse with every sort
of characters, the result will be insubordination
and flight"
While the slaves are going South, white in.
migrants from the free States and from Europe
are moving into the border slave States, and
are thus gradually Transforming them into free
States.
The st. Louis Christian AdUocdte, remarking
upon the large immigration which is flowing in
upon Missouri, and the development of re-
sources, construction of railroads, establishments
of seminaries and colleges, and erection Of
churches, that viii follow the movement says:
"Under such an impulse as this, it does not
require prophets eye to foresee the destiny Of
Slavery. There is not an element Of its being
that can long subsist under the presence Of
these combined forces. Our wisest statesmen,
our shrewdest business men, our educators and
journalists, our philanthropists and Christians,
all alike premise the approaching downfall and
dissolution of the institution and all alike unite
in hailing the dawn of that glorious day"
The following statement from the PennsyL
vania Inquirer is a case in point
Facts are the fnger-posts on the paths Of
time. Ninety-two thousand acres of land, stu
ated within the three counties of Highland,
Randolph, and Pendleton, Virginia, have been
sold to Northern Emigration Society for sixty
thousand dollars, and the territory will soon be
colonized by white laborers. The drain Of
slaves from Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri,
towards other States is going on so rapidly
that some of the Southern journals, that view
the course of events only through a circum-
scribed vision, cry aloud for re-opeDing of
the slave trade"
The Slavery Propagandists will in vain seek
a remedy for this state Of things, the effect Of
which is to drain off the slaves from the more
Northern to the extreme Southern States, and
convert the former into free States. The slave
trade if n could he revived would donbtesS