The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-07-14
THE POLICY OF THE NORTHERN
SLAVE STATES.

ReUieso for June, the object of which is to show
the necessity of reopening the African slav,
trade. He states that Virginia is losing hel
slave population at the rate of twenty thousand
per annum, and that consequence the agri
culture of the State is far less than it would be
| if these negroes could be retained in the State
He has no wish to see their places supplied by
immigrants from Europe and from the free
States. Mr.. Ruffin is lover of Slavery per Sc
and cannot bear the thought of seeing Old
Virginia transformed into free State.
He must be aware that, with the high and
continually rising price of cotton, the only
remedy for what he deems the evil of denuding
Virginia of her slave peplation is the revival Of
the slave trade. Virginia slaves are worth a
thousand to twelve hundred dollars and if ma
tive Africans can be procured at third or a
fourth of that price, it is evident that the drain
upon Virginia will cease.
MIR. Ruffn thinks that the places of the de-
ported slaves cannot he supplied by white i'm
migrants for many years; and that in the mean
time agriculture must suffer materially, and the
price of land must fall. But, unluckily for this
Pre-Slavery view of the case, it is utterly un-
supported by facts. The history of the States
from which Slavery has gradually receded
proves just the contrary, viz: that white labor
Immediately steps in to fill up the vacuum made
by the deported slaves, that agriculture i'm
proves, and that the value Of land enhances in
a rapid ratio. Delaware and Maryland. and
the portion of Virginia which lies in the vicini-
ty of this city, furnish striking examples of this
truth. Slavery is rapidly evanishing, and the
demand for labor has brought in much larger
supply of free white labor than was furnished by
the negroes who have been removed south
The consequence is, that great cities with com
merce and manufactures are springing up on
Southern soil the price of land is daily aug
menting, and improvement in every form is
taking the place of the sluggish system of Sla-
very. The only portions of Maryland in which
the stupor of the olden times is to be seen are
those which, by the cultivation of tobacco, are
enabled to retain their slave population. To-
bacco brings high price, which will Justify the
employment of slave labor; and the effect is to
keep several of the naturally finest counties of
the State in the condition they occupied fifty
years ago. The northern counties, whose soil
and climate will not invite the employment of
slave labor, are rapidly improving, and becom-
ing assmilated to the adjacent free State of
Pennsylvania.
The counties Of Fairfax and Prince William
in Virginia, which lie on the Potomac near this
city, furnish another striking illustration of the
invigorating influences of free labor.
Slavery had completely exhausted them. 1t
had robbed them of their natural fertility, and
fifteen years ago, some enterprising New York
ers conceived the idea Of restoring them to fer
tility, and made purchases Of land at nominal
sums. This process has continued to go for
ward ever since, and the result is, that at the
present day something like half the population
of Fairfax is Of Northern origin, and the value
of land has increased ten-told.
In all the northern counties of Eastern Nir
GINA the same process Of resettlement by
Northern immigrants is going forward. They
are gradually superseding the Shareholders, and
restoring the land which they have wasted to
more than its pristine fertility. Western Vir
ginia, in which Slavery has never taken deep
from the North or from Europe, and thus dri-
wing the institution further south.
These facts are incontestable, and cannot
fail to make an impression upon the minds,
not only of the people of Virginia and Mary
land but of the slave States in which grain
fourishes better than cotton and sugar. They
cannot fail to perceive that Slavery is tran
sient institution, with them at least, whatever
it may be with the Gulf States; and when
this conviction is arrived at, they will not be
long in concluding that their welfare calls for
measures calculated to facilitate the natural
tendency of things.
We are no apologista Of the domestic slave
trade. 1t is a shocking violation Of human
rights-a barbarous and cruel practice but it
is nevertheless a fact, that it is making free
States of Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, and
Kentucky. 1t appears to be an engine in the
hands of Providence for the destruction of the
very system Of which it is one of the most
odious characteristics. Gods providence is
ever on the side Of the right, and He sets the
counses of the wicked at naught by his perfect
plans.
For years to come, ii will be impossible to
sbolish this domestic slave trade, except by the
Inauguration of the greater crime of reopening
the foreign. 1t will 60 on, and its effect will
be to make free States of Maryland, Virginia,
Kentucky and Missouri. Their weight will
be added to the North, and subtracted from
the South and this transfer from one side to
the other, taken in connection with the CONVEX.
sion of the great Western Territories into free
States, will forever settle the question of Sla-
very.
Although the abolition of the domestic slave
trade cannot be effected, we see no reason WHY
it cannot be regulated and we suggest to
ton Of party, the consideration of this matter.
Let them look at the subject in the light in
which it was viewed by the recent Episcopal
, Convention of South Carolina. That Con.
yention declared that the relation of husband
and wife is of Divine Institution, and equally
binding on master and slave; and that the in
junction of the Saviour, forbidding the separa-
ton of husband and wife, is obligatory on the
master, and every master should so regulate
the disposition of his slaves as not to infringe
the Divine injunction.
This action of the Episcopal Convention in
South Carolina is the most creditable thing
which any religious body in the South has per.
formed IN long time. Coming, as it does,
from South Carolina, we have reason to hone
that the example will be followed by all the
States, and by all denominations. But even