Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-11-14
SLAVERY. IN THE WEST INDIES. !.

1t requires no great foresight TO perceive that
great contest is approaching on the subject OF slav
will have to be fought by the phanthropists with
great dimnuton of prestige, the result of faslhed
predictions and blasted hopes. The Broughams and
Wiberforces of the present day will have to ADOPT
a somewhat humber tone. The manlfestoes OF
Exeter Hall must for once be defensive and apoo-
getic for the world is now wiser than when the
pulpit and platform resounded with indignant ap-
peals to humanity fiveand-twenty years ago. Inc
touching descriptions of philanthropc novel writers
will 70 for little now, as far as regards our own
colonies Those who are old enough may rccoliect
the traditional portraits of West India pro?rietors,
their wives and children, which are to be found in
the "mora tales of the last generation. The own
er of Jamaica property was always lying OIL sofa,
drinking sangarse and swearing at Samoo, nne
mulatto youth whose quivering lips AM, flashing
eye told how much he felt. The lady of the house,
always represented faded beauty, with her brow
wrcathed with pearls, was of course, being famed
by two female slaves, whose delicate forms bore re-
cent traces of the LASH The youthful heir wandered
about the house exercising whip given oy his
mother, expressly to beat the little negroes with
faithful and pious Pompey, exposed to every kind
of usagc because Dinah who loved hInl-oh, now
fervently would not listen to the unmanly pro
posals of Drive the overscer, completed the picture
BY such representations as these body OF as hard
working and loyal subjects as England ever possess
sed, were held up to obloquy, and negro emanc'pa.
ton was effected without regard to the interests OF
men who were popularity supposed to be revelng IN
gotten grains But politicians and the public,
and even the friends of the slaves themselves, have
now begun to see matters in clearer light.
Our own colonies are impoverished, but the
sum of slavery is not diminished; it has only
been transferred from US to more grasping,
ptiIess and INSCRIPTIONS hands, Never was the
prospect of emancipation more distant than now
that foreign shareholders establishing monopo-
" of all the great staples of tropical produce
The island, which in the olden times supplied so
much sugar. coffee and cotton are going out OF cul-
tivation while Cuba, the United States and Brazil
are every day extending the area of their cutlva-
ton and the number of their slaves. So valuable,
indeed is the slave in Cuba that, in spite of treaties
and penal laws, cruisers and blocka,ies, thousands
of Africans are yearly carried across the Atlantic to
work on the sugar and tobacco plantations. The
wealth of the island is such that, in spite of mis-
government, oppressive taxes, and Spanish army
of 25 900 men, its proprietors are among the richest
in the world AS to the United States, it is indeed,
folly to expect any thing from that quarter. Slav-
cry on the North American continent has extended,
is extending, will extend. As long as the supplies
Of cotton are below the demand in all the markets
of the world, so long will slave labor be too valuable
to be parted with Even the northern slave States,
which but few years ago were discussing the
gradual abandonment of the system, are now silent
about abolition, immediate or prospective The
slaves are present the great perhaps their greatest
source of wealth. If they cannot cultivate their
own land, they breed negroes to supply the new
plantations in the South. 1t may be declared that
the attacks of Abotionists and The interference of
the North are the cause of this determination to up
hold slavery; but no sensible man will believe that
mere irritation and obstinacy could lead to such
great results The existence of slavery is an eco
nomical question. and so long the system is prof
table we cannot doubt that it will be maintained
Much the same may be said with respect to Brazil,
where the institution prevails which features of
cruelty unknown even in the worst Of times under
English rule
Now to these countries we have given monopo-
ly of products which are the chef basis of our in
dustry or among the chief sources Of our revenue.
They are becoming rich, powerful, arrogant, every
day less inclined to be guided by English counsels,
or moved by English interference. With all the
readiness which selEinterest induces they have learn
ed the arguments against limiting slavery and slave
Importation, from our mishaps, our acknowledge
ment of failure, from their own prosperity, and from
our dependence upon them. They have the law of
nations their side and may quote it in answer to
any assertion of rights to interfere in the cause
of humanity. They are free nations and Africa is
free coast Negroes are necessary to raise the cot
ton, sugar, coffee and tobacco, which the world
wants. The white man cannot work under a trop-
cal sun, and unless the African be used laborer
the fairest regions of the New World must remain
desert. In fine, negroes must be had at any cost,
and no nation has right to impose lis own scru-
pulosty en- other free communities. II England has
ruined her colonies there is no reason why she
should seek to check the progress of the whole
American continent Such is the kind Of reasoning
which is becoming more and more common every
day and We may depend upon it that in some form
under prcteXt the slave owners of the other
hemisphere will again attempt to obtain supply of
negroes from the coast of Africa. The recent i'm
portation into the French colonies has naturally
aroused their attention. and it is wonder that we
hear it asked why few cargoes of such "emgrants"
could not be brought to New Orleans or Savannah,
there to be settled according to the domestic insti
tutions of the State With this renewed vitality of
slavery owing to the rapidly increasing value of the
slave, we have to DEAL
And it is not by preaching protesting,
threatening denouncing, that the objects of hui
manity can be attained. The last generation were
content to be merely destructive; they broke down
the slave system in the West Indies without at
tempting to replace it by better, and the conse-.
quence has been the multiplication of the former
evils, and deepening of the guilt in which we in
directly participate consumers of the slave raised
produce. After twenty years experience we are
now called upon to provide remedy. On all sides
we hear the same cry, the colonies are perishing
for want of sufficient labor.-London Times
The IDEA OF THE enthusiastically he
(James Hargreaves) dropped upon his knees, and
rolled on the stone floor at full length. He lay with
his face towards the floor and made lines and cir
| ola with lnfo h,,rr ~, H.