St. Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1845-1863, 1861-03-28
The African Slave Trade.

The African Slave Trade.
The Congress of the Confederate State
has passed law prohibiting any person
from directly or indirectly imp"rtiag. or
bringing in any manner whatever. into
the States or Territories Of the Coifedera-
cy. from any foreign kingdom, place or
country. (u,hcr than the slavcholding
States among their late confeGcratcs or
from the sea, any negro, mulattn. coolie.
or person Of color. as a Shave. or to be
held to service or labor, for any length Of
time whatsoever. Here we are in advance
Of both England and France, which are
introducing coolies from India and Chi
ma to their colonies. to labor for q Civ
en- term Of years. The vessel engaged
in such trade is to be seized and for
fsitel and the person 80 importing. or
aiding others to import negroes, &c. is
liable to q fine Of from one to FIVE
thousand dollars and to imprisonment
for a term often to tw"nty years. Any
person selling, purchasing. receiving.
concealing or moving any negro. &C.,
SO il!egallx ported, may be fined from
one to thousand dollars for each
one &C.; and if any person shall,
fog d klf or others, as master. factor
or fO&ner, build, equip, load or other
wise prepare q vessel within a port Of
the Confederacy, for such trade, the
vessel <hall he forfeit, and he may be
fined frcm to Ave thousand dollars,
aud imprisoned five years. OsA0kpro-
visions Of the act refer to the forfeiture
by the claimant If any negro so import,
ed. even when lie has been All innocent
purchaser.
The law is 90 stringent and 60 guard.
cd against the probability of its i'f'ac-
ton, that We presume few of the North
ern shipnastcrs, who chiefly engaged in
the trade, will risk themselves within
Southern waters. We trust our calum-
niators at the North, who, rather in
have declared in one breath
that VIC stand in fear of the slaves now
here. and in another have vowed that
one chief purpose in seeding was to i'm
port hordes Of African barbarians, will
begin to understand the purpose Of tie
South.
We have no doubt this action of our
Congress will give general Satisfaction.
We dare to aver in behalf of our own
large constituency It forty NJ fiftv thnu<-
End readers, that it will meet with their
almost universal approval. - Southern
(ChuHtston) Christian Idrmutc.
THE TARIFF AND COLLECTION OF REvE-
NUE. -ELrlmsion u .Iomhr,u Commerce,
The Northern (rcpublican) Journals
continue t" he terribly pnzzlcd in view Of
the breakers ahead" While giving i
as a military necessity" they
evidently begin to sec that the new tariff
aud the collection Of revenue will put
them to severe test. As the New
York Express remarks they fear an extra
session. to give them power to act. and if
All extra session did give them power, they
fear action, lest they CONE into confic,
with foreign powers. Collecting duties
"n the quarter deck, by 1000 Mil,s Of
blockade, they begin to comprehend, is
rather difficult, if not quite impossible.
The Journal of Commerce. too, in survey
ing the republican programme-frst, the
Morrill, tariff, to enforce which, South,
Congress has TO be evoked in extra scs-
ports of entry to be abol-
ished. South, and goods made contraband
when attempting to enter, remarks:
Such piracy will never be submitted 10
by the other powers. While We have the
undoubtel right to regulate the commerce
in places Of which We are in possession.
by establishing. aboli>hing or changing
our ports Of entry. it would be an as-
sumption Of power quite int"lcrablc,
should VIC undertake by our more dictuni,
to exclude from the ports Of two thousand
miles Of sca-coast upon the Confederate
States. the Commerce essential to the
trade. productions and prosperity of mil
lions Of people in both hc,nisphcrcs. Such
a policy will never be submitted to for a
moment by England, by France. or 10y
ANY nation which has the power or spirit
to resent it. Whatever may be the antici-
pations of the administration at Washing
ton respecting the recognition of Or the
refusal to recognize the Confederate
States, VIC may rest assured that such an
outrage upon commercial and maritime
rights as the proposed plan would involve,
will not commend the government OF the
United States to favor, in the opposition
which it may feel called upon to make to
the recognition Of the dc jttcto government
of which President Davis is the head.
Gov. FLorD vIxDlcArxD.-The sensible
and accurately informed Washington cor
respondent of the New York journal of
Commerce" in bis letter OF the 18th inst
says:
''Ex-Secretary Floyd is here. Iii.
statement concerning the acccptances.
&c. is correct. An investigation into the
facts was lately made by eminent lawyers
here, as counsel for holders of the accep-
tances. and led them to the conclusion that
there were but six ur seven hundred thous-
and dollars of acceptances sfloat. and that
these were well secured. and that the gov
eminent would Jose nothing by paying
them. Neither does it appear that there
was illegality in the issue of acceptanccs.
1t had been the usage Of departments to
give certificates Of indebtedness. The
Post Office Department, was supported for
nearly year in this way. Tie liO,s