The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-01-17

cur navy. For instance, the best paId naval our
Ger in the American service gets only $500 a
year, while the highest officer in the British navy
gets Sl5,932; and so with the others in like pro-
portion. Economy is q very good thing, and
highly commendable in government like ours;
but there are better modes Of putting it into
practice than curtailng the salaries Of our army
and navy officers. Justice to these gentlemen
and tie dignity Of the service alike require that
they should be better paid than they are.
The Learned BlackssnItMs Cash Plcn Of
Emancipation-A State Convention Called.
From Eiihu Burritt, "the Learned Black
smith" we have received the letter, the cali for
q Compensated Emancipation Convention"
and the plan OF operations projected by the
executive committee of the national society con-
cerned, which we publish to-day. The move
mcnt contemplated is of the most magnificent
proportions, and as new phase in the slavery
agitation it is entitled to some attention, how
ever impracticable may be the scheme.
The movement was organized at a conven-
ton at Cleveland, Ohio, in August, 1857, on
which occasion eighteen States and Territories
and all political parties we're represented. Its
object is the abolition of African slavery
throughout the United States, according to the
British West Iudia emancipation policy of COM
pensatiop. The plan recognises the complete
sovereignty of the slave States respectively
over the subject; and proposes, On the part Of
the federal government, the payment of two
hundred and fifty dollars for each slave in any
State when said State shall be ready TO close in
with the offer, by the payment of the balance of
the purchase money that may be required to
liherate the slave population of the State.
Upon this point the Executive Committee say
that, "athough the emancipation Of 3,5o0,0O0
slaves-the number in the Union in 1s50-would
cost at the rate suggested 1915 0O0 oo0 but little
of Thu sum would be neededin any one year for
long time to come. The State most prepared for
offer. Should it be Delaware, only about
S500O00 would be necessary should it be Mis-
souri,. about twenty-five millions would have to
be raised"
Next, we are informed that Hon. Rufus King,
Daniel Webster and other American statesmen,
have suggested the public lands as source of
revenue which might be legitmately appropri-
ated to compensated emancipation !; and that it
is officially estimated that about l,G00,0O0,000
acres still remain unsold, which, at fifty cents
per acre, would pay for over three millions Of
slaves" And such are the essential points of
this compensated emancipation" scheme, in
behalf of which we are to have State Conven-
ton at Albany on the 25th and 26th Of the
present month.
Now, we hold, first, that, as matter Of expedi-
ency among the slave States, this plan Of aboli-
ton is wholly inpracticable; secondly, that It's
financial requirements are wholly beyond the
reach Of the federal government and the State
governments concerned. A pound Of practical
experience is worth a ton Of untried theory.
The Jamaica compensated emancipation ex
ner;ment has proved depIorable failure. The
liberated negroes of the island have refused to
work. And what have been the consequences?
The ruin Of the planters and the relapse Of their
fields into uDproductive jungles; the rapid
descent of the negroes to their original condition
of African laziness and barbarism; and the des-
perate resort of the landed proprietors with
thousands Of idle negroes around them)
to the Asiatic coolie system to supply
their necessities Of labor. Hayti affords
another striking illustration Of the fixed fact
that the African will not work, beyond the
actual necessities of the day, without a master
What, then, would follow the emancipation of
the slaves of our Southern States? We presume
that it would take at least four of them to pro.
duce, az "free men," the amount of labor which
one upon the general average, produces as q
slave. Ruined planters, wasted cotton fields, a
disastrous reduction of the cotton crop--disas-
trous from the diminution or our substantial ex-
ports, and our increased trade and treasury de-
ficencies, federal and local, South and North
would, therefore, be among the inevitable results
of emancipation, Compensated or uncompen.
stated.
Beyond the Northern border slave States
therefore, this compensation would never be lis
tened TO- and even in these this experiment Of
compensation would be absurd go long as their
surplus "feld hands" and likely young women"
command, in the cotton and sugar States, from
fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars head
Upon another point the Learned Blacksmith
is quite as wide OF the mark as upon his ratio of
compensation. He takes the official estimate of
sixteen hundred millions Of acres of unsold pub
lie lands as equivalent Cat fifty cents an acre) to
an emancipation fund of eight hundred millions
Of dollars. But, to set the Learned Blacksmith"
right upon this subject, we would call bis atten-
ton to the report of the various governmental
explorations made, from time to time, during the
last twenty years. over all that vast region
lying between the frontier white settlements of
the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Ocean
He will thus discover, with the further assistance
of any Ineligible map,ithat between these said
limits there are absolute deserts and desert noun
tains, equal, at least, to an area of five hundred
millions Of acres-an area of sandy wastes vol
canic debris, and desert mountains which never
will be worth one cent to the acre while water