Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1860-04-07
G MECHANICS.

NEGRO MECHANICS.
In the March number of DeBow's
Commercial Review We find the follow
ing from the pen Of Judge Hopkins, Of
Mobile. 1t is worthy Of the special no
tice of every man in the Southern
S.stes who has interests in the institu-
tons of slavery worth protecting
"If it be desirable to preserve the
patriarchal system Of negro slavery now
subsisting at the South, as the very best
basis of social order and Of moral and
domestic integrity, as we'll AS All agricul-
tural necessity, which none may doubt,
who has evoked wisdom and virtue in
pursuing the question. Say+bolders
should aIlay this antagonism in their
midst, by agreeing, through Legislative
action to %conine the Negro to the soil,
thus to elevate and open up the me-
chanics trades to the non-slaveholding
people around them. Dignity the
trades to the level of the professions, in
common accepta,ion, and idI'ng, |oafing.
loungiug, %fox-hunting, or, in other word,
general dissipation of health, energy,
and time, among the young men Of the
South, would almost entirely cease, and
in their place be substitut d general and
busy industry. BY continuing the negro
to the soil. the mechanic would he at
once converted from an open, or secret
enemy Of negro slavery, into its frmest
advocate and supporter, because he
would then feel himself lifted up in the
scale Of social responsibility, aud maiu-
tanned in that position by the subordi-
mated negro confined exclusively to men.
ial services. Before the law and the
community, all white citizens would
stand strictly on a footing OF equality,
and be alone distinguished BY courtesy
and merit"
TIE Southern planter certainly over
looks his true interests when he leaves
his fields Of cotton, cane, and tobacco,
or rice, and arrays himself with his cap
ital in competition with humble white
lafborers o bis own State. The veal
thy planter ought to be content with a
splendid income from the fertile soil cul.
tivated by his own slaves. When he,
with his wealth and credit, monopolizes
all branches Of industry, and breaks
down yhis composition even the bum-
bic village laborer. he is gradually un-
dermining some Of the strongest and
most reliable pillars Of Southern insti
%,utions. The lordly planter, even With
his thousand slaves and broad domains,
needs stronger hackers than his over.
seer, his family teacher, and his field
bands. And if our villages are 10 I've
dwarfed by hIs competition, and lie re
fuses the hand Of friendship to those
who are struggling to rise on their indi-
yiduai merritt he absorl,s the small
plantations in his neighborhood, and
refuses all aid to public schools, church.
es, and enterprises intended to build up
than the mere planting interest Of
the country he will fnd in the eud tba,
he himself, by contracted selfish policy.
has done more TO break down tie South
and the institution Of slavery than any
the mad rantings Of Northern Abo!-
'tionis's whom he has been fighting at a
distance. The Southern planter in his
mad ambition to grasp a. immense
may close his eyes to all these
'acts 50 long as the threatened evil is not
his very door, but whether he admits
The fact or not, the crisis approaches
This question has already come up be-
GRE the Legislature of Tennessee, it is
in the South Carolina papers.
t occupies a conspicuous position in De-
Bows Review, and we hope to see it be-
ore all the State Legislatures Of the
South at an early date. 1t is, after ILL.,.
he question upon which is suspended
he we'll being and independence Of the
entire South Planters Banner.
THE Two pp1zr |.