Des Arc citizen., 1860-02-22

Convention to be held at Brownsville or Monday the 12th of March next.
 NT The edto. of the "Des Arc Citizen comes out in favor. of re-opening the slav, trade ard says: "If slavery is wrong. i should be obliterated-if right, it should b, perpetuated." This and other arguments used are good, and we are ready to conced, the right of the Southern States to impor African slaves, but we think such move would be ef doubtful policy and be danger. ous experiment that might disastrously affec the present harmony of the Southern States element among our contented slave popula- tion."
 We find the above in the Jefsrson h. dependent of the 1st inst. We have an abiding faith in the fealty of the editor ol that paper to the cherished institution. J But that which has produced the greatest amount of injury to Southern slavery, has been the indirect admission of its friends that it should not be perpetualed by the only means known. viz: The Reopen ing of the Slave Trade.''
 It IS true, that since 1907 the U. $. Government has prohibited the slave trade by stringent laws. But those laws have not prevented the importation of Afri- cans--the trade has been carried on, and multiplied hundreds have been added to the slave population of the South-the;r condition changed from that of barbarians to profitable tillers of the soil = from Heathenism to Christianity-from unpro- fitable 10 that of profitable servants both to God and man. Men, in their short sighted philanthropy, may ignoran.ly al, : tempt to thwart the decrees of Heaven, but they never have and never can suc- ceed.
 It has been well and truly asserted that "without the protection of the white man, they (the Africans.) become a race of worthless vagabonds; hence the negro leans upon the white man as the vine clings to the oak. Take him from the object that he looks to for sympathy and protection, and he becomes improbable worthless, a burthen to himself, and a hui. sance to society. He at once takes his seat upon the ground--he works no more he soon fills the novels of poverty and the sinks of iniquity, shame, wretchedness and misery. To protect them we mus, first enslave them. for the duties of pro. lection and obedience are reciprocal .'-- The teachings of history, coupled with the condition of the free negroes of the Uni ted States, to say nothing of the miserable failure of the English and all other gov ernments who have favored the sad and fatal attempt to equalize the races in the West India Islands, will, for all time to come, prevent men who have decent re- gard for the welfare of the human family from encouraging to the least extent. the abolition of that sysetm of servitude which
 
 was ordained of Heaven, and youchsafed to all the generations of earttR
 The importation of African slaves is m new experiment. It is time -honored and never has been abandoned. It belongs exclusively 10 the Stales in their sovereign capacity to say whether it shall, or shall not be tolerated. The General Govern. ment has the same right to prevent the i'm. portatlon of any other property as that ol negroes, and the sooner the law of inter. ference with the rights of the slave States IS plotted from our national statute books the better 1t will be for the benighted and down-trodden sons and daughters of Afr. ca, as they will then be brought into a state Of contented servitude. where tbev will learn the truths of Revelation and he compelled to till the soil and render ama. terial aid'' in feeding and clothing them. selves and the multiplied millions of earth