The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1860-05-08

The eight or nine thousand slaves Oh this county
are the agricultural laborers, the field hands as
well as the domestic servants of the community
they are branch of its productive industry just
as any other labor is, and to tax them simply as
capital is to make distinction against the labor
of slaveholding communities, and in favor of nom
slavehoding communities. 1t is to adopt the
classification of Mr. Seward and to permit our
selves to be arrayed as capital States or communi-
ties in opposition to labor States or communities.
Capital is the accumulated result of labor-slavery
means labor itself For what is slave valuable
certainly not on account of his ornamental pro-
pertes while living, OF his disability when dead.
1t is as labor that he is valuable and labor is what
gives value to all things else. The labor of the
negro cultivates the soil and supplies products
which are exchanged for the results of mechan-
cal labor and ingenuity. The products Of negro
labor supply the commerce of our ports, give en-
! ployment to our merchants. clerks and shippers,
sustain our currency and directly or indirectly pay
our taxes and support our government, at least
they contribute their due proportion and more.
There is a story Of the old woman who killed the
goose that laid the golden eggs. The policy that
clogs production or imposes heavier taxes upon
active industry, free or sa is mistaken one,
and errs In the same dire ion that the old woman
did.
! Now, be it remembered, that it is only as pro-
ducers that any additional tax eventually fall
upon negroes and thus it would be just so much
discrimination against those communities in which
slave labor is employed. Merely as capital, slaves
are every day carried out of the State, account
of the demand for them at the South, causing
higher prices to be paid and thus negroes, like all
other movable property, and unlike land, can easily
be removed beyond the operation of such taxation.
j If retained wiChn the State, the actual employer
pays the tax, whether as hirer owner. Every
body knows that the hirer of negro pays the tax,
so that the burden, then. is imposed upon the
actual industry, and not at all upon the capital.
But the majority-the vast majority of negroes
are owned by those who employ them on their
farms or plantations agricultural laborers,
in fact are to the fullest extent Of their numbers
producers, aud to pass them as capital and not as
an essential element in the labor of the State is to
do gross injustice and be guilty of great
absurdty Wilmington Jo"'7'ol
| BARN BURNT-We learn that the barn of Dr.
! Geo. Houston one mile north of Davidson College,
was consumed by fire on Sunday night 10Th. Two
horses, wagon and gear, with nearly all his hay
and fodder, were destroyed. Several other horses
were damaged. The fire discovered about
o clock in the morning. 1t is supposed to have
been set on fire. and suspicion rests on a negro in
the neighborhood.- Salisbury Wutchman.
INDIAN MURDERs-The Crockett CTexas) Ar
gus says that within the past month no less than
sixty murders have been committed by Indians
the frontiers of that Statc-that six families
murdered the same time in cold blood in tie up
per part of Mclean county.
A ROBBERS CAvE.-A robbers cave has been
discovered Waloga, LII. 1t is nine feet long,
seven wide, and five feet high. In it were benches
and book case, filled with valuable books, among
them quarto bible.-Any number of burglars
tools there. and also pair Of boots singular
i'll their construction, the soles being wrong
end foremost the heels being where the toes should
be They were undoubtedly placed so in order
battle those who might wish to track the wearer.
There stolen articles in the cave to the value
of $500, some Of which were recognised rs having
been stolen some months since.
Bay The Supreme Court of Georgia has decided
that ga negotiable Promssory note, transferred as
collateral security, is not subject, in the hands
of the holder, to sets off or demands by the maker
against the payee, and this whether the note be
endorsed before or after maturity when the de-
mand does not grow out Of the original considera-
ton of :he note"
GREAT FIRE IN TRINIDAD-The Star of the
West reports that fire occurred on the 10Th in
the valley of Trinidad, extending eighteen miles,
sweeping down all standing cane the Sugar
tates The loss is estimated at million and half
dollars. 1t also estimated that it will reduce
the production of the Sugar crop on the island
over eight thousand hogsheads
The japanese Embossy.-The steamer Roanoke
will be ordered from New York quarantine to
Hampton Roads, whence the Japanese Embassy
will embark in steamboat for Washington, where
they will be received by the President before they
proceed elsewhere on their travels through the
country. The city of New York has appropriated
$50, goo for reception thereto be grand affair.
Arrcst cfo Fugitire Sore from Tiryinio-Hs
Violent Rescue.