Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1859-04-20

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during seed and harvest time, which are the only
seasons for severe labor in grain and stock coun-
try. Such labor as those States require can easily
be performed by whites, and hence their dear ne
gro labor is always shipped Southwark, and cheaper
whito labor substituted, whenever o great rise in
the price of cotton occurs. In this way the white
population of the North is ever pressing South
ward and it holds to every inch it gains, with an
unconquerable determination to get into the 9ental
climate Of the South. Population never moves
Northward if left free to act any more than winter
runs up hill. Only think of Missouri having 10
whites for one slave. Kentucky five for one, and
other border States in proportion, with stream of
abolition constantly caving in the banks Of slavery,
so to speak, and now inundating Kansas whose
Southern boundary is about the same as that of
Virginia, kentucky and Missouri. That stream Of
abolition is likewise invading the Iudian Territory
which is in tho latitude of South Carolina. 1t is
also spreading over Northern and Western Texas,
far Southwark of Carolina. It will furthermore
soon penetrate into New Mexico, since the late
law passed by the legislature Of that Territory
to protect slave property i but serve as hugle
note smmoning the abolition world to arma. Kan
sas adopted whole volume Of slave laws in her
early history, butwhat purpose diditscrve? Neither
Statutes nor Resolutions, nor speeches, can propa-
gate negroes.
A great rise in the price Of cotton acts like the
breaking of mill-dam in q freshet. The demand
for more cotton luborers then becomes so vast and
Unsuitable that wave Of negroes has to sweep
Southwark to fill the immense void, and the vacui-
ty thereby left behind is instantly occupied by a
surge of white labor which forever beats against
the border slave States and thus it is that those
States are being undermined like a caving break
water. Nor aoes the evil stop there. The current
of negroes which moves Southwark to the cotton
fields, soon guts the cotton market which produces
as much injury to the cotton States as stream
that oyerauws its banks does to the neighborng
plantations. The cotton planter finds all his money
gone, which he had acquired ty the lnte rise in
cotton, and himself in debt for cotton laborers at
hish prices, and the abolition sentiment of the
North stronger than ever. lie then tolls on for
years to pay the debts he had contracted for cot
ton land and laburers at inflated prices. lie also
cheerishes the hope of speedy rise in the price
of cotton, and will not therefore undertake other
business In fact. he could not without sucrihciug
his property, if he were to sell it, aud farmers
pruverbial for stability in every thing. They are
SLOW to chunge from one pursuit to another, and
the skill for undertaking new business is not ac
uuired in day; md hence they continue making
cotton from neces.ity-from habi,-frum hope of
q good time coming.
By and by good tilnc does comc cotton again
rises by consumption outstripping production, but
instead of selling out his land and negroes, cot
ton planter perforps the round he did bofure,
When cotton lost rose. Of course MI cotton plan.
ters could not sell their property at any time, as
there would bv no one to buy if every one wanted
to sell, and it would bo folly to sell ass general
policy. But still if tho slave trade were open
when tho great rses tRko puco in the prico Of cot
tom the cotton market would he glutted no sooner
ny the importation of luborers from Africa than
by bringing them from Virginia or Maryland, or
by absorbing them frum other pursuits in the cot
ton States. Hence Rhode Island, Connecticut,
Now York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which
were once the border slave States, have abolished
slavery without bcneftting tho South one iota and
the present border States succumbing to abo-
lition without any resulting good, but with posi-
tive evil to the South. Yea abolition has progressed
with rapid strides, while it has at the same time
got all the proceeds of our high priced cotton
usurped our manufactures, robbed US of all the
emigrsnt artizans-destroyed our fax and indigo
culture-still plumbers US on every hand, while it
taunts and insults us.
1t i, when the South is seemingly most prosper
ous-wben cotton is at its highest prce-whsn
negro labor is more valuable than white labor that
tho institution Of slnrery receives its sorercst
shocks. Only at four periods Of our history has
negro labor been more valuable than white labor
for any considerable length of time. Que Of these
periods has already been enlarged upon-nainely
1Sl5-20. In 1925, cotton second time sold on an
average in Charleston during the entire year Mt
81 cts pound, when another avalanche Of neg oss
came Southward, leaving their places to be filled
by white laborcrs, and another drain WAS made
upon the purse Of the South (the proceeds Of all
her high priced cottou) to develope and sustain
Northern manufactures. Negroes then solda $500
and $3.50 heud, which attracted 80 lusuy Of
them to the cotton fields, that the very next crop
glutted the market and left the planters hand over
head in debt for negroes at monopoly prices. The
cotton crop Of lS26-7 near 4UO, 900 bales more
than that of the proceeding yeur.
The planters then dragged on in the stagnaton
of glutted market until lS35-g-7, when third
apparent uilleniua pretsntsd itsslf. Cotton then
sold .. l6 and lS cts. a pound, but the moucy was
all spent for moro cotton lsb0rers at $500 aud
$500 each Negro lahur sssip rising abnY' tba
value Of whits labor, CAUSED another Esgipa Of
Desruss to tho seulh-aro~n .hithcr hy the high
price Of cotton and pr.mca Suuthssrd by whto
laborers In acsutdanrs NTH the tendency Of all
populatiun white, black, Ut cupper colorsd to move
toward the tropics. 81 many negroes quilted the
border States and other pursuits in tho cotton
States to engage in cotton culture, ut tho tius Of
this third millennium, that the crop WAS again iu-
creased nearly loO,OuO bales in one year. Then
cotton fell down. low, lower, lowest until consulnp
tion being stimulated by nominal prices once nore
overlook production in 1850 after the incubus of a
glut had rested upon the cotton States for IL
years. But dually in that year cotton fourth
time went to 5 cts when tue South actuully ran
wild after negroes ut monopoly prices, ~
that the cotton crop uf lSjl-2 exceeded that OF
the year previous by syon 7Du,OlO hales which
caused the price Of it to tumble down to nothing
But it rallied the next year since, which time the
amount Of the crop has remained stationary and
the price ut high figure, except during temporal
ry commercial Interruptions clearly showing TINT
the profits upon other kiuds of slave labor IRE
nearly equal those of cotton culture ut IL and "a
cts. Il pound. Otherwise the cotton crop would
not have rcmuiued stationary for years.
However after tho monetary crash of 1857 the
wages Of white labor fell far below that Of negro
labor in the cotton field, and white labor once
drove negro labor from the grain and stock regions
IS we'll as from other pursuits Mt the South to the
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