New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-11-07
THE KruNoLocucar. ARGUMENT.


trevert the chronological theories recently put for
ward by The Journal cf Commerce to justly the
existence and perpetuity of Slavery we must not
be understood as concedng by our silence the Truth
Of tbOse theories or admitting them as facts. The
object Of our article was merely.to show how
rapidly The Journal Of Comm was getting on IS
to the doctrine of " the ultimate mental and physi-
cal collapse Of mOngre or hybrid races when they
L" ntermarry or live in state Of concubinoge;
intended, we suppose, to justify the practice oil
white fathers enslavng their mulatto children.
This. 80 far from beng universally admitted fact,
az The Journal assumes, lie but the opinion or sug
pestiOn of few naturasts of no very eminent
reputation, and is very far from being generally
received Instead Of being sustained by the expo
rience of the West Indies, as The Journal alleges
that experience is quite the other way. So is the
experience of Mexico and South America; in which
countries, in the course of three centuries, the
mixed Spanish and Indian race has come to form
arge proportion of the population.
The other chronological dogma upon which The
Journal undertakes specially to justly the existence
Of Negro Slavery is that San inferior race occupy
(" ing the same soil with superior race must either
Z" be reduced to bondage or ultimately be eIter-
minated" We are not able to see the necessity
of this alternative. 1t is true, no doubt, that be-
tween barbarous tribes there is apt to exist state
of chronic war, and that the practice very com
monty prevails of reducing each other to slavery.
But are Christianity and civilization to count for
nothing1 Is it impossible for the present age, with
all the lights of religion and science, to make any
improvement upon the practices of barbarous times
and natiorsf Because Slavery exists in pagan
Africa, because it formerly existed in pagan Greece
and Rome, is that any reason why it must continue
to exist in the civilized Christian countries of the
present age7
As to our drawing inferences from the state
ments assumed as facts by The journal Of Com
mercs of which it does not ike to take the respon-
siblity, the real point is-Do those differences ogi-
cally follow from the assumptions made If 80,
then The Journal is obliged to accept them, and to
make them part of its system. If the grounds
on which it undertakes to justify negro Slavery
lead logically to the revival of the slave-tr ids,
then The Journal must 90 for the revival OF the
slave trade. Or, if objections may still be thought
to exist to that measure on economical grounds,
as likely to affect unfavoraby existing slave prop
erty it must at least admit that the objections
made to the African trade on the score of religion
and morality are unfounded. If the idea of natural
superiority and inferority, which The Journal
urges as justifyng the making slaves OF negroes
is ju.t as good reason for making slaves OF white
men, it then follows that white Slavery is just as
justifable as black Slavery.
1t is true, that The Journal Of Commerce has
heretofore spoken of the African slave-trade as a
crime worthy of execratiOn. SO it used to speak
of Negro Slavery as moral, social, and CONNER
cal evil, of which it was desirable to get rid.
Having changed its opinion upon this latter point
it is but reasonable TO expect corresponding
change as to the former. The chronological argu-
ment in defense of Slavery, which seems to have
made so deep an impression upon it, was first
brought forward at the South, by the same parties
who advocate q renewal of the African trade.
Having got 80 far as to accept the premises of
these philosophers, The Journal Of Commerce may
be expected to follow up these premises, in due
time, TO their logical conclusions.