The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1859-02-15
Missouri and slavery.
From the st. Louis Cent. Christ ian Advocate. !

iffom the st. Louis Cent. Christian Advocate.1
One OF the most striking and significant fact.
connected with Missouri is the change that i.
constantly going on az it regards the relative
position of the white and colored population
IN reference to numbers and social positicn.-
| Scarcely week passes away without witness
ing the emigration of hundreds OF slaves to the
South. Various and numerous are the causes
Tor this unprecedented movement. We can
| only enumerate few Of the principal elements
involved.
One OF the principa! causes, in cur Judgment,
| IS that 1t is demonstrated as clearly as any Of
| the problems of Euclid, that so fer as Missouri
is concerned, white labor is far more profitable
than slave labor. A stranger coming to St,
Louis would be surprised to find tina. in the ho-
tells, barber shops, and on the .ievee, the
parties employed are generally wl.itcs-seldom
40 you IND a coored person performing this
kind of labor.
We remember when we first came to this
city, being taken by surprise to find at the ho
teiwnere We put up, that there was not 80 much
as one colored person. When we went to the
barber shop, we expected, as a matter of course.
TO meet with one of the sable ofesson-but
We were disappointed. A correct convention
may be formed of their relative position, from
the fact that the slave popuation Of the city
only amounts to 1000, and as it regards this
number, many of them are a burden to their
owners
Another cause operating powerfully is the in
security OF this chattelized property In Mis-
SCUM, surrounded as she is by free States, STAN
pedes OF slaves are ofsfrequent occurrence
GU cannot take up one Of the city papers with
out seeing an advertisement with its ACCOMPANY.
ing reward for the recovery Of runaway slaves.
We do not belong to that extreme school desig-
mated abOtionism. We have no sympathv
with u, and just name it as a cause But we
are not to be understood as approving of that
way of dealing with the institution ANYTHING
like violent interference with it Only serves. in |
our Judgment, to increase the difficulties in the |
way OF emancipation. But at the same time |
the difficulty OF holding slaves un err such cir |
is certainly one of the most pow |
erlu principles IN operation to thin the State OF
slaves.
But perhaps Of all these causes in operation.
one OF the most potent is the deep, the firm
the settled obsolete conviction that Missouri is
speedily destined TO be. free State There are
in operation that must ultimately
work out its result There is the strong un-
dercurrent OF feeling that pervades the depths
OF the American mind in favor of freedom OBJ
taihing an embodiment, and must soon gather
such force as to sweep every vestise Of slavery
from the land. In no part Of this vnst continent
y ths uhuefcurfeht rising to the surface SO ra-
pldiy as IN Missouri. Our friends at distance
may rest assured that the day Of freedom in Mis-
souri, is not far distant, and when that day arrives
IS Church, we shall have the consolation to know
hat we have mingled in freedoms battle, that
We have carried the pure, the everl sting gos.
pei, that proclaims liberty to the captive, into
very part Of the State. Amds, persecution
md death we have stood to our post, stood while
lssaied hy all the malignity and ianatieism that
! political and ecclesiastical zeal could inspire.
3ut what's more trying than all tue outward
PRESSURE and opposition that has been brought
Q bear upon us, has been the cold shoulder
urned towards US by some Of those small friends
small in every sense OF the term--destitute or
minds capable Of grasping the mighty principles
t issue. But We thank God we sill live. and
every department Of cur vast field the work
extending, and already the notes Of victory
re heard.