The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1862-04-25
The Emancipation Scheme.

in the matter of selling their slaves L
the Federal Government, at its own price
and upon its own terms, in obedience t
the abolition demand for emancipation
The slaves are not to be sent northward
for the Yankees protest against such al
addition to their population. They ar,
to remain where they are, unless the,
elect to go to Liberia, Hayt, Guinea. o.
some other FL Dorado of tho colorec
race. Taking the act relating to the Dis
trict of Columbia as the guide, the aver
age price paid to each owner is not t.
exceed three hundred dollars; although
there is not a lot of slaves in either o
those States that would not bring now il
Richmond an average o! five hundred
dollars, and although three fourths o
the shareholders could get an average o
eight or ten hundred dollars apiece fol
their property, or double as much rs thi.
law allows them. There are plenty o.
blacksmths and carpenters in these
States that would bring here to-day TWEEN
ty-five hundred dollars apiece; so that
the owner of carpenter and his wife
worth together thirty-five hundred dol
lars, would be compelled by this law to
give them up for six hundred, or only
seventeen per cent. of their real value.
Little Us the Yankees, in their vain.
glorious arrogance, are prepared to be
lieve the fact, slave property is now
worth more than it was at the outbreak
of the war. 1t may have had few peri.
dds of depression since that event; but
they were temporary and the decline in.
considerable. At this time, at all events,
wher Buel, is on the border of Mississip-
pi and Mcclellan within sixty miles OF
Richmond, slave property is dearer and
its sales more ready in this city than has
been the case during any period of the
| war.
The average value of every slave in
Kentucky, Maryland and the Federal
| District, at this moment, counting all
| ages and sexes, is nearer six hundred dol.
lars than three hundred and yet this
act of the Abolition Congress, assumed by
its enactors, in their whole language and
bearing concerning it, to be generous in
the extreme, cohfiscates the slaves by ar
bitrary edict, and allows only half their
value to the owner. 1t does not appear
from the debates that have yet transpir.
ed what are the conditions on which
even this pittance is to be paid to the
owner. There are snmn r"s~;s;~.An. mo-
yet disclosed, which direct portion o
the money to be paid to the emancipa
ted negroes, and as the contingency up
on which this payment is to be made
depends upon the testimony of negroes
the owners oaths no. being admissible
as evidence, the chances are largely in
favor of the owners being deprived of q
goodly portion even of this pittance.
There is one provision in the act which,
in conjunction with that allowing negro
evidence to be taken, must endanger ev.
cry owners right to receive the compen-
sation allowed by law; and that is the
clause depriving of the benefit of the act
those who have given aid and comfort to
the South. 1t is reasonable to suppose
that almost every slaveowner in the Dis
trict was Southern born, or at least OF
Southern proclivities; and this matter
of giving aid and comfort is of so vague a
purport, and affords SO large scope for
malice and perjury, that but very few
slaveowners may be able to escape con-
viction upon such. a charge, his house
hold servants being admitted as witness.
es in their own favor against him. The
number of slaves in the District is small,
and their value at fair prices does not ex-
coed hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars. At the little more than half price
offered by the government, the cost OF
their emancipation would not be more
than hundred thousand dollars and
we doubt, in fact, whether the actual
compensation paid will much exceed fif
ty thousand dollars, so infinite is the in
genuity of the Yankees in the business
of swindling. The law, in fact is moth
ing but law of emancipation for com
pensation amounting to only one-third
of the value of the property taken is rob
berry in fact, slightly modified in degree
The highwayman who besets widows and
orphans in the road, and robs them o.
two-thirds of their money, making 6
virtue of leaving the rest to keep them
from starvation, is no less O robber fol
his vaunted generosity.
The bill, while in fact appropriating nj
more than fifty thousand dollars fo
emancipation in the District, embraces
an appropriation of four hundred thou
sand dollars for colonizing the Liberated
negroes in foreign parts. The repug
nance of the North to their emigration
thither required to DO satisfied by som,
provision of this Sort To propitiate tina
Cerberus, the sum of four hundred thou
sand dollars is thrown out; but to pa,
the robbed shareholders, who suffer rea
loss and outrage, the wretched sum O
only fifty thousand dollars will be al
that is extracted from the treasury.
Such is the law which the Abolitionis
: North has passed with the high hane
over the Intellectual protest of thos,
wretched miscreants, Garlic and Wiley
Garrett Davis and Lazarus Powell, Ken
) edy and Salisbury. The South coule
, not desire more exquisite revenge thar
the forlorn spectacle which these worth
les are presenting in the Senate of tina
"Union" which they sacrificed thei
: honor and betrayed their country t.
maintain.
What will be the development of pub
lie sentiments IN Maryland and Kentuck.
, upon the scheme of emancipation appliet
to the Federal District, and proposed t.
!. be extended to themselves. cannot nov
be known. But this much is to be infer
red that as the maiorities of thes,