Delaware State journal and statesman., 1863-03-10
NO. 20.

stopped half way. They confined the defence OF
slavery to negro slavery alone, abandoning the
principle of slavery, and admitting that every
other form of slavery was wrong Now the line
of defence is changed The South maintains
that slavery is just, natural, and necessary, and
that it does not depend on the difference of COM
plexions."
Cries of "shame.") But following up this is
an extract from a speech by Mr.. Cobb, who IS
eminent man in southern politics aud in
southern opinion. He says:-
"There is, perhaps, no solution of the great
problem of reconciling the interest of labor ald
capital, so as to protect each from the encroaeh-
ment and expressions Of the other 80 simple and
effective as negro slavery. By making the
laborer himself capital the conflict ceases, and
the interests become identical"
(Shame.) Now do not know whether there is
any working man here who does not fully or
partly realise the meaning Of those extracts.
They mean this, that If man in this neighbor-
hood-(for they pity us very much in our be-
nighted condition as regards capital and labor,
and they have an admirable way in their view of
putting an end to strikes)-they say that if
man in this neighborhood had 100000 in d
cotton or Woollen factory, and he employed a
hundred men, women, and children, that instead
OF paying them whatever wages had been agreed
upon, allowing them to go to the other side Of
thb toMul uuu WOTk MneIe tueJ Hktu3 ot 10 iuoN1
to another county, or to emigrate to America, or
to have any kind of will or wish whatever with
regard to their own disposal, that they should be
to him capital just the same as the horses are
in his stable; that he should sell the husband
South. .-"South' in America means something
very dreadful to the negro, that they should sell
the wife If they liked, that they should sell the
children, that, in point of fact they should do
whatsoever they liked with them, and that, if
ouiv ona nf fhornr tad tvhfoh
the master chose to inaict, the master should be
held justified if he beat his slaves to death and
that no one of those men should have the power
to give evidence in any court of justice, in any
case, against white man, however much he
might have suffered from that white man.
(Hear.) Now you will observe that this most
important paper in the South writes for that
principle, and this eminent Southern politician
endorses it, and thinks it cure for all the evils
which exist in the old world, and in the Northern
and free States aud there is not paper in the
South, nor is there d man as eminent or more
eminent than Mr.. Cobb, who has dared to write
or speak in condemnation Of the atrocity of that
language (Hear) believe this great strife
TO have its origin in an Infamous conspiracy
against the rights Of human nature. (Hear.)
Those principles, which they distinctly avow and
proclaim. are not to be found, as far as know,
in the pages of any heather writer of old times,
nor are they to be discovered in the teachings or
the practice Of savage nations in our times 1t
is the doctrine of devils, and not of men
(hear, hear) and all mankind should shudder
at the enormity of the guilt which the leaders Of
this conspiracy have broughtu upon that country.
loud applause.) Now, let us look at two or
three facts, which l take to be very remarkable,
on the surface of the case, ,-but which there are
men in this country, and am told they may be
found even in this town, who altogether ignore
and deny. The war was not commenced by
those to whom your resolution refers it was
commenced by the South they rebeiled against
the majority. 1t was not a rebellion against a
monarchy, or an aristoeracy, or some other form
of government which has itssh upon people,
sometimes by services, but often from tradition;
but it was against a government of their own,
and compact Of their own, that they violently
rebelled, and for the expressed and avOwed pur-
pose of maintaining the institution of slavery,
and for the purpose, not disavowei, Of reopen
ing the slave trade, and as these extracts show,
if their principles should be fully carried out, OF
making bondage universal among all classes Of
laborers and artizans. When l say their object
was to re-open the slave trade do not for q
moment imagine that am overstating the case
against them. They argue with perfect logic
that, if slavery right, the slave trade could
not be wrong if the slave trade be wrong,
slavery cannot be right and that if it be lawful
and moral to go to the State Of Virginia and buy
u slave lOf cE,UOUt huu lako 10 1uulslhuut IL
would not be wrong to go to Africa, and buy a
slave for $50, snd take him to Louisiana. That
was their argument; it is an argument TO this
day, and is an argument 10 my opinion no man
can controvert and the lawful existence of sla-
very is as matter of course to be followed, and
would be followed, wherever there was power,
by the reopening Of the traffic in negroes from
Africa. CHear.)
This not all these people have done. Refer
ence has been made in the resolution aud in the
speeches. to the distress which prevails in this
district, and you ore told, and have been told
over and over again, that all this distress arose
from the blockade Of the South American ports.
There is at least one great port from which in
past times two millions of bales of cotton a year
have found their way to Europe tho port of
New Orleans-which is blOckaded; and the
United States government has proclaimed that
any cotton that is sent from the interior to New
Orleans for shipment, although it belongs to per-
sons in arms against the government, shall yet
be permitted to go to Europe, aud they shall re-
receive unmOlested the proceeds of the sale Of
that cotton. But still the cotton does not come.
| The reason why il does hot come is not because
ii would do harm to the United States govern
nent for it to come, or that it would in any way
assist the United States government in carrying
on the war. The reason that ii does not come
is, because its being kept back iI supposed to be
a way of influencing public opinion in England,
and the course of the English government in re-
ference to the American war. (Cheers.) They
burn the cotton that they may injure us, and
| they injure us because they think that we can
not live even for year without their cotton;
and that to get il we should send ships of war,
break the blockade, make war upon the North,
and assist the slave owners to maintain, or to
obtain their independence. Now, with regard
TO the question of American cotton, one or two
extracts win be euficient but l would give you
a whole pamphlet of them if it were necessary.
Mr. Mann, an eminent person in the state Of
Georgia, says: With the failure of the cotton,
England fails. Stop her supply Of Southern
slaVe-grown cotton, and her factories stop, her
commerce stops the healthful normal circulation
of her life blood stops" Again be says " In
one year from the stoppage OF Engand's supply
of Southern slave-grOWn cotton, the chartists
would be in all her streets and fields, revolution
would be rampant throughout the island and
nothing that is would exist" He also says, ad-
dressing and audience, "Wby srs British
lords hold their lands. British bishops hold their
revenues, Victoria holds her sceptre, by the
grace of cotton, as surely as by the grace Of
Col" (Roars of laughter Senator Wigial says,
{" If we stop the supply Of cotton for one week,
England would be starving. (Laugater Queen
! Victoria's crown would not stand on her head
one week, if the supply of cotton was stopped )
nor would her head stand on her shoulders"
repeated laughter.) Mr.. Stephens who is the
Vice-presdent of the Southern Confederacy,
snys, " There will be revolution in Europe, there
will be starvation there; our cotton is the ele-
E ment that will do it, loud laughter.) Now, [
1 am not stating the mere result vf any discovery
= ofmy own, but it woul be impossible to read
/ tha nf thnG npt tha nj