Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-07-24
we.t Indin Emancipation.

Deen Wrltlent anu COnllnue W w NIltteAy 70
prove that emancipation is a success and
volumes to prove that it is failure. Sta
tistics, composed of figures which can not lie,
but which make the most convenient founda-
ton for lies, have been paraded, to prove both
sides of the question, and with the usual
facility Of these philosophical materials, they
have been equally convincing on both sides.
Slavery says emancipation has ruined
jamaica. Before that II was one Of the sugar.
producing islands. Now its exports of sugar
are next to nothing. Half its sugar planta-
tons have gone back to bush, and its plant
ers are ruined.
This makes plain case. Abolitionists ac-
cept the issue and point to Barbados, Trim
adad and British Guiana or Domerara, where
the export of sugar has increased since eman-
cipation, and which are evidently enjoying a
high state of prosperity. Thus Abolition
puts down Jamaica by the majority princi-
pie; but to make its case incontrovertible, it
undertakes to explain the decline of Jamaica,
Various are the theories brought to this pur-
pose, the chief of which end in laying the
blame on the planters.
As specimens of those, the New York
Times has Jamaica correspondent who at
tributes the ruin of the planters chiefly to
absenteeism, and to their refusal to pay fair
wages. Yet the proportion of absentees was
by no means so great as the proportion of
land which has been abandoned, and it would
be wonderful that absent landlords should
ruin resident proprietors. 1t seems also
hardly natural that Jamaica proprietors
should be so blind to their interest us to let
their places 90 to bush rather than pay fair
wages and make fair profits, as the Barba-
dams do. There would seem to be some
thing in the atmosphere that makes the same
people, on different islands, see their inter-
ests SO differently.
An American Missionary recently returned
from Turkey, where lie had probably sue
ceeded, after great labor and expense, in
getting some Turk to say that our religion
would be very good religion for the Nes-
torians that being about the climax of sue
cess in the missionary work among the Turks.
Flushed by this success he took Jamaica in
his way, and saw into the whole thing at
once. At missionary meeting at New
York, a few days ago, he expounded that it
was all owing to the shiftless ways of the
planters, and that if they were energetic
men, Jamaica might export just as much
sugar with free labor as it ever did with
slavery.
The most curious feature of this discussion
on the part of the Abolitionists is, that sta
tistics should have any thing to do with the
question Of emancipation. Does a mans
right to be free depend upon figures? Yet
Abolitionists accept the issue made by
slavery, and attempt to establish the right Of
colored men to freedom by the relative ex-
ports of Sugar; or if that does not suit the
purpose, by the relative production of other
branches Of labor. No question of principle
divides slavery and emancipation. II is only
a question of fact, as to tle condition in
which the negro produces the most Sugar.
In this aspect of the question, statistics dc
become important. But Abolitionists are
bound by their own rule, however it may op-
crate. If the increased export of sugar in
Barbados and Trinidad proves that free
labor is the best for them, so also the ruin Of
Jamaica by emancipation proves that slavery
is the proper condition of laborers in that
island. This necessarily follows from the
principle of governing the condition of man.
kind by the sugar product. In all the volu-
minous discussion of West India emaucipa-
ton, there has been no difference of principle
between the advocates of slavery and the
Abolitionists. Each take sugar as the CHIEF
end Of the colored man, and the question be-
tween the two parties is only between, what
some mealy-mouthed Southerner in tn,
Senate called different types of industry"
We have had occasion before to notice the
singular fact that freedom for the black inai
is a failure, according to the principles ant
arguments of its most prominent advocates
This question Of West India emancipation i
another illustration of it. No Abolitiouis
has dared TO argue the question on the broaC
principle that the negro has right TO b.
free, and to be an indolent, ignorant savage
if it so pleases him; but Abolitionists talk as
he should be free because he will be such
good boy, and will turn right in and worl
harder than before, and increase the expor
of sugar, aud get little place of his own
and send his children to Sunday-schooi, an,
provide them with graded public schools, an,
will make them all good and. happy in thi
world, and prepare them to go TO heaven il
the next.
If this is the true principle, the African ha
no right to be free in his own country, for h
does none Of these things The African vii
produce sugar and cotton in America, and hi
master will throw in his salvation, in the bar
gain: at home he produces nothing, excer
children, aud his future condition is parloul
50 this very abolition theory strikes at tn
root Of our efforts to suppress the Africa
slave trade.
If the negro has right to be free, wha
right have we to say that he shall work
when he can live at ease without Whit
men will not work in tropical countries
What right have they to say that the negr
shall not take his ease, basking naked in th
sun, and living on bananas, and other spon
taneous fruits, but shall toll for white men, tina
they may export sugar and take their ease 1
LUXURY and refinement? Is not ease an
abundance the object of all our care an
labor2 and if the negro enjoys them withor
care or labor, what right have We to say tbs