Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1860-11-23

~ III IL " Us ~ hlsIl kliS
ing the essay before US, but Of presenting our
readers with some of its choicest extracts, that
we have referred to the pamphlet.
Referring to Mr.. Stewards advice to ''re.cs-
tablish the original policy Of the nation, and
hencerorth hold, as we did in the beginning,
that slavery is only q purely local, temporary
and exceptionable institution" our author re-
minds US that the policy which induced our
forefathers to resist the introduction Of slave
labor in our midst, was based upon the opinion
then entertained that African slaves, instead OF
being profitable laborers, would eventually
prove q mere encumbrancc. lie says.
AS vet, cotton was not in America; and the
men of that day were, therefore; sorely per-
picked to divine a hopeful future for q trans.
planted race, which multiplied so rapidly and
was so full Of tropical Incidence that 1t could
not be selfsupporting on the common husband
~ of temperate attitudes. That race now
o%utnumbers considerably the three millions OF
c~olonists who declared themselves independent
OF Great Britain in 1TT6. For each man, wo-
man and child of that race, within the bounds
of our greatly enlarged United States, u bale
of cotton is annually produced; and the bales
of cotton which we export annually average
more than half Of the whole surplus products
or cxportnble wealth Of the Union. Upon that
export of cotton repose mainly our shipping III.
~terests, our foreign exchanges, our national
credit throughout the world. We have n raw
material, which African fingers gather, ana
with which the manufacturing masses oil Eu'
rope cannot dispense. And we arc happy 10
add TINT the condition OF our Africans, nj
though they be called slaves, is vastly better
| than that of an equal number Of the laborlng
population of any part of Europe although
these last be called frecmen.
The following extract furnishes much food
for just reflection:
All that We have just advanced as the true
and necessary cause OF the continued slavery
of the African race in the United States tails
to the ground, unless we prove the incapaclty
of that race to be selfsustaining IN our land, IN
a condition Of freedom. And on this point we
are quite willing to Judge of the whole race on
the evidence which is afforded by the lives and
habits Of that fractional part which we have
in our midst, rs freemen in the North. In
speaking Of those lreemen, we will not even
require allowance for the fact hat many oil
them are by no means OF purely African de-
scent. and that some Of them have 4 great pre-
dominance of Auglo.Saxon blood in their veins.
We will simply enquire, what are their pur-
suits? Do they labor III productive industry,
or do they simply minister to luxury: The
answer is plain. No one can lind ta6ortous
blacks in any free State. So great is their
aversion to labor, that the entrance OF free
blacks into some Of our Western States is pro-
hibitcd by law. The existence Of such laws
implies plainly two things: l. That they are
an idle race, tending TO %paupc1ism. ,. That
thew are not citizens Of the United States /;
otherwise their passage from one State into an
other State could not lawfully be prohibited.
In view of such anti. African legislation BY
Western States. let US have no more Northern
twaddle about the cnormitics Of the bred Scott
decision, which did nothing more than to affirm
what the Legislatures Of border States have for
many wears past quietly assumed as 4 constl-
tutiOnal axiom, or at least q poStulatc.
But to consider free blacks more in detail.
The writer was born and brought up in Phila-
delphia, n city where there is no prejudlce
against them, and where they thrive and pros.
per moro abundantly than in any other part Of
the United States. The colored population Of
our city is probably twenty-five thousand, or
about i've per cent. OF the total number Of its
inhabitants. Now, how do they live? A few
Of the poorest amongst them are hod-carriers
to bricklayers the rest hardly work at all,
except as ministers to the luxury, or gathercrs
of the spare material Of a large city. The men
are BARRIERS, public and private walters, coach
men, vendors and scourers Of cast-off clothing,
understanding, in short, but omrnon Ia
borers or mechanics. They neither dig cellars,
nor wheel coal, nor stow away heavy goods,
nor exercise trades as carpenters, or machinists,
or painters, or paper-hangers, or factory-work-
men. The women are cooks and washerwomcn
of the highest grade, particularly in the last
named department Of ministry 10 luxurious
living. But, gentle reader, if you have trav.
elled as much through free States as the writer
has done, and have, like him, failed to find
blacks producing anything whatever in any
State, whether they be living in the city or in
the country, you should already, on principles
of common sense, have come to his conclusion,
which is this that any great or sudden addl.
ton to the number Of free blacks in the United
States would of necessity pauperize the whole
Of that class Of our population, and lead to IN
calculable suffering amongst them. a great
city like Philadelphia can maintain, on the SER
vice of its personal luxury, twenty-five thou
sand blacks, or five per cent. Of its entire pop
~ulation; but suppose that their number were
doubled or trebled, so as 10 be abruptly In
creased to ten or fifteen per cent. on that pop
ulation do you suppose that our city, or any
other Northern city, could afford employment
to such a per centage Of loungeTs-about for n
lob? And what city of the Union would re-
ceive and maintain them as paupers, and Tor
that pseudo philanthropic end and object OPP
pressively increase taxation upon its white pop
ulation? Certainly we may affirm that Bos-
ton, hilo-African Boston, would not do Sc
She has always been remarkable for her dislike
to any taxation which yields no equivalent
benefit. On this principle, she got up a great
tea. party at Liverpool wharf, in the days Of
1915; and on the same principle, n few years
ago, she sent back to his lather.land 4 poor old
Irish gentleman, sick and crazy, who, at the
solicitation Of his friends, had left his country
for his country's good, choosing rather
to be a paupcr in New England than a
pauper in old Ireland. The sons of the
Pilgrim fathers were wise in counsel Of this
world, and prompt in action respecting a single
insane panper from Ireland; and we very
much fear, that if african paaperS should
food them, and require at their hands practical
tax-paying friendship, it would be found that
the negro had counted without his host. 1t is
pleasant to d%enounce slavery aud TO talk about
the propriety of our eagle carrying with it free.
dom as ''the general, normal, enduring and
permanent condition Of society within tue ju.
risdiction and under the authority Of the Con-
~stitution of the United States" All this is
philanthropic and it costs nothing. But to
maintain a crowd Of shivering, shiltless, thought
less, useless blacks! Aye there would be the
rub, people of New England, if you should ever
accomplish your cruel scheme Of compelling
the white man in the southern border States to
emancipate the negro. If you shall once sue
coed in making slaves such a burden that many
masters shall, with one consent, break their
letters, do you suppose that their former mas
tcrs will keep within their own borders as FREE
paupers those very blacks whom thcy will
then have liberated, simply, because they conld