New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-11-23
TEE GREAT PROBLEM.

As we will not admit, not even in argument
that success can await this Southern rebellion,
or that any other result can follow the struggle
than the complete exposure and defeat OF Its
Infamous purpose, so we hold that the destruc-
ton of Slavery, sooner or later, must be It's
inevitable consequence. In their insane amb-
ton, and under the pressure of the natural
laws of political economy, against which they
struggle in vain, these Southern madmen have
pulled the house down over their own heads
It may not, indeed, all come down with u
single crash; but whether it shall fall into In
stantaneous ruin, or shall crumble away piece
meal. now one section and now another, that
il is shaken to its very foundations and cannot,
even with the most skillful props, be sustained
much longer, can hardly admit of doubt
Some persons, who have data for their conclu-
sions, estimate that in Missouri alone, within
the last eight or nine months, the slave
population of about 10000 is diminished
by $4,000; Of these, $4,000 have lett
their masters, and disposed Of themselves
according to their own viii and pleasure, and
the other %, 900 have been hurried off TO the
South from n market where, 1t Is presumed,
they will presently be an utter loss. AS 1T is
in Missouri. so it is in all the border States TO
n greater or less extent. In all OF them
tenure of the masters upon the slaves has been
broken in thousands of cases, and in many
thousands more the masters have rid them
selves of property whose value, they fear, will
soon cease altogether. The system, in whole
tier of States from Missouri to Delaware,
though not yet plucked up By the roots and
east away, is loosened and broken so that its
leaves and branches are whitening and shriyel-
ling, and it must presently die. The same
causes that have produced these results in the
border States are about 10 be introduced, we
trust, into those south of them, and will have
like consequences. Whether the Federal Gov
eminent resorts TO emancipation or not, as q
military necessity, events are proclalming that
a death.blow has been struck at Slavery,
this month or next, this year or Lext year, IN
the whole South but system 20 pernicious,
politically, morally, and economically, cannot
long survive the inroads Of destruction when
once commenced.
To rase four millions Of people from Slavery
to civilization, whether in one or in ten years,
is a problem which it is best not to leave to
the solution of chance. Left 10 the slow inhu.
ence of natural law, il would work itself out,
undoubtedly, to n happy result; but wisdom,
guided by experience, may forestall the delays
and disasters of transition period, and by
aiding and directing the blind forces OF nature
produce in five years the harmony and pros
perty which nature unassisted would take a
quarter of century to create. Great Britain,
in decreeing emancipation in the West Indies,
remembered only that every human being is
entitled to freedom, but forgot that centuries of
slavery was a poor preparation for the new dis
pensaton. She gave liberty to the slave, but
failed to recognize the fact that the slave is a
mere child in intellectual and moral develop
ment, and that intelligence is the chief cond-
ton of perfect freedom. 1t was wise to relieve
him from the degradation of slavery, even
though generation should perish before the
negro learned those habits of self-control and
sell. government which become the freeman.
But it would have been wiser to take into eonsid-
Grafton his actual ignorance and imbecility, and
by guardianship of law and of circumstance
to have fitted him at once for the duties and
responsibilities of free citizenship. The negro
of the West Indies had, it is true, worked out
the problem for himself almost unassisted, but
it has taken him twenty years to do so. Let
lis profit by her mistakes as well az by her ex-
ample, and when we decree liberty to the
American slave make it boon that shall not
be merely a heritage for the future, but bless
ing to him and to us to-day, one which we
may never repent, even for a moment of hay
ing given.
One STEP perhaps the first we can take, is
TO make labor honorable by example. and
desirable because of the rich fruits it may be
made to yield to the laborer himself. The
South must be opened to free labor. 1t is idle
to say that white men cannot bear the ex-
posture of that climate, for the fact is that
they always have borne it, as laborers, and
are doing so more and more every year. Mr..
Russell mentions in one of his earlier letters,
in description of the Houmas plantation, on
the bottom-lands Of the Mississippi, that there
are twenty miles of deep ditching upon it, ex-
elusive of canal, the work Of Irish navvies.
He naively adds, that the work is too severe
f" for African thews, and experience has shown
4" il q bad economy 10 oyertask the slave"
In other words, negro costs money, and when