Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1859-06-08

less prevented by the conservatism of the other
States in the Union. A strong centralized hand
is sadly wanted now to curb the liccnsciousness Of
the mobs in those two States. The same lack o.
ballast-of a sheet anchor-of a conservative elc.
ment is deplored throughout the North.
IF the slave trade were revived there is hardly
doubt but that at least the North Western State!
and the whole Pacific Slope would adopt slavery
as surely as man will always net from the center
of his own Individuality" Chinese slavery al
ready practically exists in full force on the Pacific
Slope, just as negro slavery substantially exists
in the hereling States of the Atlantic Slope. This
will not be controverted by any one who is in
formed upon the present state of things in oul
Pacific possessions. Although California and Ore
gon prohibit slavery, or involuntary servitude II
their Constitutions yet over 1000 Chinese reside
there most of them as the virtual slaves Of tht
white man, and SO our countrymen on the Pacific
are "bound together, by class and caste ties
against the Chinese, which produces IN element
of conservatism very promising for constitutions
liberty in that quarter. The aristocracy of caste
and class" does prevail there under the patron.
age of public opinion, as emphatically rs if il
were established by law and that Chinese slavery
will soon be permanently established there by
Constitutional enactment, admits of but small
question.
The moment Gold was discovered in California
the Chinese crowded thither in thousands. They
ho ;-,I hnf0 &C yyhitp
foreigners are allowed that privilege under the law'
of Congress, yet they persevered in resorting te
California in face of the bittercst hostility of tht
whites. Congress had no power to exclude them
zing it and expatriation being an inalienable
natural right, debars Congress from excluding any
person, of any nation, of any color from the
States, or Territories of the United States. The
matter of admitting, or excluding persons of {
particular class or status belongs to the faculty Of
State Sovereignty. Hence by the time California
had become State, she rcckoned almost as many
Chinese ns whites, within her borders and although
she might have conferred local citizenship upon
the Chinese at the adoption of her Constitution as
some of the abolition States have done in respect
to their free negroes, yet she declined to do 81
then and has persisted in that d termination.
Nor is public opinion the only potent agency
for treating the Chinese as slaves on the Pacific
Coast. Apprentice laws look to tho same end and
those laws are becoming more and more stringent
ut every emendation of them. In the Convention
which adopted the Constitution Of California no
effort whatever was made to establish negro slave
ry under it, because nearly all white miners were
opposed to the institution upon the ground mainly
that large capitalists, or slave holders would have
an undue advantage, by being able to introduce
so many slave laborers, as to exclude the poor
miner from either rich diggings on his own ac-
count, or from high wages, while at work for
others. 1t will also be remembered that in 1850
negro labor was higher than white labor and that
therefore poor miners in California could not have
sanely hoped to purchase many slaves at tn.
prices then obtaining. Cotton had risen so high
that its producers were enabled to drive all
other competitors out Of slave market. AS the
cotton crop of lS5l-2 exceeded the previous one
by near 1000 900 bales, at least 200, 900 new slave
laborers must have been put to cotton culture in
1851, allowing 81 bales (the usual estimate to
the handy at the very time, when negroes were
most wanted to plant slavery in California.
Therefore to have established negro slavery in CAL
iornia then it was requisite only that the STAN
dard value of negro labor should be ADORE that o:
white labor, but that tho envy and jealousy of the
poor white miners, should also be overcome, Ia SIX
which the South could not psrform with the slave
trade closed. She was consequently beaten, as
she had previously been beaten, under precisely
similar circumstances in Indiana and Illinois and
as she has since been defeated in Kansas. But
Chinese slavery has been steadily working its way
in California against all obstacles in accordance
with the laws Of nature-the laws of demand and
supply. An 0verruling Providence has been car
ing for the South the Pacific while she has been
slumbering over her rights. The Chinese at first
came to California either voluntarily or as appren-
tices to Chinese Mandarines who enforced their
right to the labor of those apprentices under
Chinese laws even in California. But at the ex-
pirntion of such contracts only few Of the ap-
prenticcs returned to the Celestial Empire. They
have preferred even slavery to the white man to o
return to their Fatherland with its tyrauical laws
and crowded population.
The society and legislature too of California
have interfcred several times to expell them but
all to no purpose. The white miners have ever
had peculiar cause for hostility to the Chinese in
the fact, that the latter have monopolized and al
most exhausted, the entire "Surface Diggings" of
the State. The work in such mines is for lighter
and more agreeable than in the "Deep Digsings,"
although 1t does not pay so well. The Cbinaman
has selected the surface Diggiugs-bocauce of his
constitutional inertnoss-hio bodily weakness his
inherent dread Of danger aud because Of surface
mining being sure business, while the deeper
and sometimes much richer diggiugs often yield no
return for many months of hard, expensive and
dangerous labor. As natural result all the white
miners who prefer safe surface mine, to doubt
ful deep one-who prefer light labor in the open
air to hazardous severe anil not infrequently un-
profitable labor in the bowels Of the earth, have
special cause for opposing either the iugress, or
residence of Chinese in California. Such white
men have times without number made riotous war
upon the Chinese and they have occasionally got
control Of the Legislature so as to pass sever penal
lare against the importation of any more Chinese,
as we'll as to prohibit the return of those who leave
the state. But the larger part of society have
protected the Chinese und either the ballot box
has repealed tue obnoxious laws, or the California
Courts have declared them unconstitutional.
SCIPIO.
<-$-<-
Extracts
From communication forwarded to us last
Summer by our friend and co-proprictor, E. H.,
which we have not been enabled to publish until
the present, we Gull the following passages. Be
sure and read, as E. r. invariably writes interest
ingly.-ED. AD.