Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1859-06-17
TIE SHAREHOLDERS CONVENTION
AT BALTIMORE.

been transmitting brief aud unntelligible no
tees Of the doings of a convention of slave
| holders at Baltimore. What its objects we're,
and how it proposed to accomplish them,
could not be learned from the dispatches
| Our Southern exchanges, however, and
/ pamphlet issued previous to the convention,
| enable us to present to our readers clear
/ idea of the matter. The leading spirit Of the
convention appears TO have been the Hon.
James A. Pcarce United States Senator from
( Maryland, and its design was in all PROBABLE
| ity to advance the interests of the Democratic
| party in the State by getting up pro-slave-
/ ty excitement. The Baltimore Patriot, in
noticing the assembling of Tie convention,
remarked;
"While we accord to many of the delegates
high and patriotic motives, with regard to
others we have the clearest evidence that they
are influenced by merest political party spirit,
and through this Convention design to build
up the fallen fortunes of the Democratic party.
No one who has carefully watched the pro-
gress of this matter from its inception--thc
meetings at which the delegates have been
selected, the delegates themselves. but must
have at once discovered that the veil is en-
tirely too thin TO hide the doformites Of mod
ern Democracy
The Convention was called as a "Slave-
holders Convention. but this was an often
sive appellation even to the delegates, and at a
preliminary caucus they decided that it should
be entitled a Convention for the Proper
Regulation Of the Coored Persons Of the
State. The city Of Baltimore, where the
! Convention was held, and where there is a
large free colored population, passed severe
rebuko upon the Convention by declining to
send delegates
The free negro population of Maryland has
become SO large as to alarm portion of the
Shareholders, some Of whom wish to expel
them from the State, or enslavc them. The
necessity for resortng to such measures was
/ advocated in pamphlet published previous
to the meeting of the convention, by Col. c.
/ A. Jacobs of st. Martins. In his pamphlet
/ Col Jacobs says there is in Maryland one free
negro to five whites. Out of the city Of
Baltimore, the proportion is much greater
than this, and in some counties the free
blacks comprise more than a third of the en-
tire population. In some counties they are
increasing more rapidly than the whites The
majority of them, he says, are ndolent and
depraved, and an incumberance to the indus
trial classes. They will not apply themselves
planters require and will not hire. unless
they can mako their own terms.
/ To illustrate this statement, Col Jacobs
speaks of having attended last January at
the town Of Berlin, whittier tho people Of St
Martins county resort annually, to make con
tracts for labor 10y the vcar with some four
or five hundred white men and slaves. At
the same time and place, there were about
| .
them is known to have hired himself elf
however, says Col. j., there should be one
to do SO at all, he generally selects home
where he can do as he pleases and get large
additional bounty in the shape of corn
patch, half Of every Saturday, extra fine
clothes and horse and often carriage at his
command These negroes, he asserts, UNI
derstand freedom to mean cessation from la
Dor, and full license to do as they please.
Considering it impossible for the whites to
live in harmony with a constantly increasing
population of idle and vicious negroes, Col.
Jacobs conceives that the time has arrived for
the whites to compel them to choose between
cxirapation aud slavery, and to prohibit fd-
ture manumissions of slaves.
Such were the views, it appears, of a minori-
ty of the Convention. The majority, feeling
the people Of the State would not sanction a
policy so cruel, took a less Objectionable po-
sition on the subject The views of the two
parties are set forth in the resolutions sub
mittcd to the Convention by its Committee
which was also divided on the subject Hon.
James A. Pearce, from the majority of the
Committee, submitted a report, in which
the proposal to oxpel the free negroes from
the State was condemned as inoxpodiont, be-
cause the industrial interests of the State
would greatly suffer thereby, Mr. PearcC
does not agree with Col. Jacobs in his esti
mate of the free negroes, but says that al
though many of them are idle, vicious anc
unproductiyo, the majority are not Of thi,
character. They are believed to number ovel
eighty thousand and their removal would de
duct nearly fifty per cent from the household
and agricultural labor furnished by people o
this color, and which is indispensable to tn,
people of the State. Besides. such steI
, would be oppressive, and would violate the
public sentiment. Sill less would the ma
jority Of the committee favor any measur,
looking to their being deprived of freedom
They however recommended that the re
straints placed upon manumssion by a law
= passed in 1881, which still exists, but ha,
fallen into disuse, should be reatiirmed by thu
y Legislature, so as either to prohibit manu-
mission altogether, or compel the prompt re
moval from the State of those emancipated
in order to check as much as possible the in
: crease of the free negro population Reso
y lutions to this effect were added to their re
port.
The minority of the committee advocate thu
prohibition of emancipation, and the passag
of laws for the gradual extinction of free ne
groism-the latter object to be attained b,
compelling free blacks to leave the State o.
be sold for life.
:, After protracted debate, the resolutions
! of the majority were adopted and the Con
vention dissolved. Boston Journal
= DEAD LETTERS AND STAMPs.-The Pos
n Office Department, with view of respondin.
to a resolution of Congress, passed March 8
1859, asking information as to what legisla
ton, if any, is necessary to reduce the mum
Der of dead letters, have prepared a circula
, calling the attention of postmasters to tn,
subject. Want of proper direction to letters
and the failure on the part of persons t,
y whom letters are addressed to call for them
a account for the major portion of letters which
: are transmitted to the dead letter office bu
the department, fearful lest some neglect OF