The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-04-21

agricultural journals in the Southern States
now support the revival Of the trade-Dr. Cloud,
of the american Cotton Planter, and DIR. Lee,
of the Southern Cultirdtor. These men are not
politicians, nor demagogues, nor yet agita-
tors they are conversant with the wants and
requirements of the South they know what she
is in need of and they know how that need can
and must be supplied-by the direct importa-
ton of slaves from Africa"
The Mobile Mercury says:
We have, therefore, half dozen potential
reasons for opening the slave trade. To main
tain our present position as the producing
market, to put into cultivation vast tracts of
waste land, to meet the increasing demand of
the consumers of cotton, to augment the power
of our section, to cheaper by larger supply
this kind of labor, until it is within the reach
of men of moderate means; and last, but high
est and most influential consideration, to hu-
mamie, and civilize, and christianize the poor
Africans. Interest and duty conspire to ap-
prove this traffic, and all the parchment prohi-
billions of thousand Congresses cannot arrest
it. The Stare trade is opened noU, and the
fruitless efforts of Federal officers to enforce
laws which contravene the moral sense of the
community, and oppose the popular will, can
accomplish absolutely nothing. 1t is fat &C.
cOmph, and defes the anathemas of the statute
book. Let the English manufacturers rest salts
fed. The unnatural limits of which the Times
speaks have been removed, and the supply of
labor necessary to meet the demands for cotton
will be always forthcoming, and the importation
of Africans will never cease until the last acre
of cultivable cotton land is planted and all the
avenues of profitable industry are occupied"
The Houston Telegraph (Texas) says }:
"This aspect of the question is not at all i'm
paired by the fact that Texas for several years
past has been rapidly advancing in population.
What is her gain, is others loss. AS already
seen, the door to foreign emigration closed by
the successful interposition of Northern preiu-
dice and hate, and none from Africa allowed,
every new conner Texas obtains, whether free
or slave, are so many taken from communities
which at the present juncture she has an inter-
est in seeing maintained. 1t is a we'll ascer-
tanned fact that, although room has not been a
necessity at home, in many of the cotton States,
owing to emigration to the more inviting thea
tire of the West, production has quite or nearly
reached its maximum. That the African slave
trade would put an end TO this deleterious pro-
cess of depletion, by lessening the value of ne
groes, would, seem to admit of no doubt and
what is Of equal Importance, that trade would
put an end to the process of concentration,
now so rapidly on the increase, and so deadly
in its effects upon the power, permanence, and
usefulness of the institution. By cheapening
negro property, you undoubtedly place it within
the reach of greater numbers and, besides,
you superinduce its application to employments
other than agricultural, and useful as well as
diversified In short, diffusion may be clearly
denominated its chief element of strength and
durabilityn