Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1861-01-08

Mr.. YANoEY ON THE SLAVE TRADE.-Mr
Yancey spoke as follows in the Southern Com
mercial Convention assembled at Montgomery,
Alabama, in the month OF May, 1858:
II Insist that there should be no more dis
crimination by law against the slave trade than
against the nutmeg trade Let it be governed
by the law OF supply and demand alone If we
do not want the negroes, then do not have
them; if we do want them, why then we can
get them. | think this ought to be governed
by that rule
sBut disagree with my friend from Virginia
(Mr. Pryor,) as to what would be the effect of
any class OF persons engaging in this trade.
doADot propose to re establish or reopen the
slave trade, but propose to leave our people
freeto do just as they please upon this question,
and not restrict them by any national law. Ii
any class Of CAPITALISTS in the South, 10 New
England, or elsewhere, choose to bring cargo
of slaves into Southern port, that is a right
which they ought to be allowed to exercise
Whether they shall sell them or not will de-
pend upon the wants of the community. If we
of the South want these negroes, give US the
privilege of buying them, whether in Africa,
Cuba, or Brazil. Ii we do not want them. then
we will not buy them.
"Will this trade depreciate the present value
of the slaves? | think that is mistaken idea
1t seems to me that the gentleman from Vir-
ginia utterly misnnderstands the wants of the
Southern planter when he seems to think that
it was his desire for high prices for slaves
That is purely Virginia idea. We of Alabam-
a want slaves to be cheap; we want to buy
them, not to sell them. 1t is 9 Virginia idea
that slaves ought to be high. So the African
chief would like to have his barracoon OF slaves
appraised at 50, 900 each. But we who want to
go there and buy them would like to get them
al $50 each. Virginia wants 81 500 each for
her negroes; we want to get them cheaper
My friend from Virginia does not understand
the wants of the Southern cotton planter. He
wants labor cheap, because he wants the pro-
duce OF tue labor to sell, not the labor ITSELF 1t
is the value of the produce that is of interest to
him, and not the value of the labor that makes
that produce. While every one who wants to
sell negroes desires q high price tor them, the
great s-of the planters who buy them are
not interested in the high price of slaves, bot
are ra her interested in getting them cheap"
1t these things are done in the green tree
what, says the National Intelligencer, will be
done in the drys II such language is held in
the present Oonfederacy what might we expect
in Oonfederacy founded, to use the language
of Mr.. Keitt iu the South Carolina Convention,
on ''the central idea of slaveryg" And that
such an agitation, tending to the subverson OF
the existing social system of the South, by the
intrusion Of barbarian element into its very
bosom, is held in reserve tor the nascent South
ern Confederacy cannot be doubted by an intel
ligent observer, as it might have been foreseen
from the beginning by any who paused to con
slider the connection between the logic of events
and their counterparts in the logic OF ideas. /