The national Republican., 1861-02-18
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN.

number, containing plan for the settlement Of
the slavery question, for publication.
STUDIES ON SLAVERY.
February 4, 1861.
will address this February number to the
Hon. Green Adams, whose speech delivered at
"Odd Fellows Hall y on Saturday, January 26,
Ihavs Just finished reading.
7b the Hon. Green Adams,
Representative in Congress from Kentucky.
DEAR SIR: notice near the conclusion of
your speech the other evening, that you say,
4 will surrender all my slaves to save the
Union )" al will give all that possess to save
the Union"
It is Just and proper, If you are willing to sur.
render all your slaves to save the Union, that
you should be paid for them.
The Constitution says "private property shall
not be taken for public use without just com.
psnsation." 1t may be for the general welfare
that the slaves should be liberated, but then the
individuals should be paid, because the whole
nation has sanctioned the law which allows in.
dividuals to purchase slaves.
It il not necessary to set the slaves free they
may be purchased by Government, and held as
slaves during their natural lives, divesting indi
yidusls of the ownership, aud then individuals
will be no longer interested in keeping up the
system.
In the United States, by the present census,
there are enumerated about four million slaves,
over two million of which are in the six sece.
ding cotton States, leaving less than two mil.
lion to be purchased BY the United States in
nine slave States yet remaining in the Union.
I.uppose ali the slaves are for sale. suppose
every man who owns q slave is willing to sell
him; hence the desire to keep open the inter.
State slave trade. I suppose the owner Of slaves
will a. readily sell his slaves to 60 North as to
70 South. Therefore conclude that there will
bs no objection by individuals to selling their
dawes. The next question will be the price. l
suppose an ablebodied negro is worth, or was
worth before the troubles came, thousand dol
lars; he may be worth more when he reaches
Alabama, but think on the plantation in Vir.
ginia or Kentucky he is not worth more than
the price have named.
suppose one in ten may be estimated to be
worth this sum, considering the old men and
old women, and young children, and inirm and
sick. A fair price would, then, seem to be one
hundred dollars apiece for all ages and condi.
tions-the aged and infrm, the sucking babes
and young children.
/ submit this plan: that the Federal Govern.
ment shall buy all the slaves in the nine States,
amounting to two Million at one hundred dol.
lars each, which will amount to two hundred
million dollars. This seems to be large sum
but it will cost much more to carry on a war.
Besides, two hundred million dollars is small
amount to pay to save the Union We can soon
earn that if we hold together. A national debt
is said to be, in England, . national blessing
In this country, if the cotton States had held
some thirty or forty million dollars worth of
United States stock, they would have thought
twice before they would have fred upon the
United States asg, because it would be firing
upon their own individual property. A man
would not willingly, II he were in his right mind,
take thoussnd-dollar certificate of stock, on
which he was receiving regularly fifty or sixty
dollars year Interest," say, man would not
be likely to take such certificate from his
pocket book and throw it into the FIRE Assist.
ing to destroy the Government would assist to
destroy his own claim upon the Government.
Under these circumstances, national debt
becomes national blessing, because it makes
every man who has any Government stock
Union man.
Two hundred million dollars, divided into
shares of one hundred dollars each, bearing six
per cent. interest, and delivered to the owners
Of the slaves, would be great help to the de.
velopment Of the hidden resources OF those nine
slave States.
The debt may be made to run through a cen.
tury, every ten years paying off ten per cent.
Each year, by this arrangement would pay but
one per cent, which would be 80 trihing. that
it would not be felt by the nation and the in.
crease of all kinds of business which this
amount of new capital would create would more
than compensate for all the interest on this debt.
When the shareholders had sold their slaves,
they would turn their attention to other branches
Of business, raising cattle and hogs instead of
slaves. Cattle and hogs are real property, while
alovoa Slavaa ara q i'll r
property. There are only two kinds of property
in the world that which we can eat or wear,
and that which is impershable in its nature.
like gold and silver, which can be EXCHANGED
in all natious for what we want to eat and to
wear. To make slaves real property, the own
ers should have the power not only to work
them as they do cattle, but also to fatten them
- they do beet, and barrel ,hem, and ship them
to New York or Liverpool, to pay for imports
from those places. A slave cannot be made the
subject Of commerce in this way, neither can he
be paid into bank in New York or Liverpool,
like gold and silver, to pay debt. A slave
il only property among slave owners in those
local districts where slavery is allowed, and even
- there he is only half property nothing but his
labor can be demanded, and, in return for that
he must be fed, and clothed, and taken care of
when he is sick whereas a horse, although not
used for food, can be made an article Of mer
chandise all over the world, and, when dead,
every part and parcel Of the animal can be used
for some purpose for the benefit of mankind.
Slaves, then, being property only in the 10.
calities where they are owned, impose heavy
burdens upon their masters, and should induce
them the more readily to exchange this kind of
property for that which is universally acknowl
edged as property.
The United States should buy this property
for many reasons The whole people OF the
United States have received great pecuniary
benefit from slave labor. The merchants of the
Eastern cities accumulated vast wealth from
the trafic in slaves, which they were allowed to
90 openly tor twenty years, and which traffic