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

The official organ of the I'd inst contains
deliberate proposition to enslave the Chinese in
California, and to open a brisk trade in slaves
with the shores of the Flowery Land. We con-
fess that when the Administration and its organ,
some weeks ago, exhibited so much zeal in put
ting down the African slave trade, that we had
our doubts of their genuine conversion to the
cause of Liberty and Humanity. 1t appeared
altogether improbable that party which had
made such sacrifices Of character in efforts to
force fraudulent Pro-Slavery Constitution upon
the people of Kansas, could be sincere in its
sudden outburst of holy zeal for the suppression
of the slave trade. We are therefore not at all
ton springing up the far-distant shores of the
Pacific. The Union says:
All that the Pacific requires. to become
formidable rival to the Atlantic slope in com
merce, agriculture, and manufactures is cheap
labor, and that lies at her door, ready-made to
her hands. She has only to reach out and
gather it in. The Chinese nadnddrins hare at
this moment a system Of foreign sldUery in Cal
ifornia. They bring their countrymen to the
mines under contracts for labor, and egtovce it
specifically according to the ta,csof China, and
scithOaH any reference to the Government, laws
or tribunals, of California. The Legislature Of
California has only to legalize this actual con-
ditiOn Of things, to contracts for Asiatic and
Indian labor; give law requiring their spe-
ciic performance, on the ground that their viOLa-
hOn IS a fraud, and which the Constitution of
California will authorize, and thereby extend its
advantage to its own citizens; and for one
fourth Ofthe annual interest on an A tricdR Stare
the Californian may haze ldbOre, ioho UiH
anSaOer all the purposes Of a negro. The subject
is now agitated in California, and, if the people
of the Pacific are threwn upon their Olcn re-
sources, must commend itself to their favorable
consideration. This cheap labor would enable
them to open vast mines now unproductive, to
embark proftably in the growth of the great
staples including tea, and to establish manu-
features which would supply the whole Asiatic
demand to the exclusion of Eastern and British
fabrics
The idea that the Chinese in California are
slaves to the Mandarins in China, is utterly pre-
posterous. The Chinese were never reputed to
be very stupid, and halfdozen years resi-
dence under the Government of the United
States could not fail to teach them that they are
on our soil freemen. The STORY of the Union
Is the latest preteAI OF thoSe champions OF Free
dom, the Democracy, for extending Slavery
Is 1T not monstrous, that party which claims
to have been founded by Jefferson, not content
with enslaving the poor savage Africans, should
now propose to enslave the Oldest civilized peo-
pie ofthe world? But the Black Democracy have
for some years maintained that Slavery, ire
spective of color, is right, and that the laboring
classes whether white or black, should be slaves.
Should this last enterprise succeed, it will be
more than halfway step to the introduction
OF white Slavery. The Chinese have no Afri-
can blood in them, and their enslavement would
at once destroy the peculiarly Of Slavery in this
country, of being confined to the African race
Slaves would cease to be distinguishable by the
color Of the skin and by the hair; and with
these characteristics abolished, there would be
no difficulty in enslaving the wretched, halffed,
sallow denizens of the sand-hills.