The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1867-05-30

numbers. and in chains took som
few to their Northern homes, an
sent most of them to be sold to tn
Southern people for slaves. In thi
work they had valuable co-laborer
in the English and Spanish. By thi
traffic in human flesh they made larg
sums of money.
The Southern people, as genera
rule, were opposed to the slave trade
and when the Colonies. threw off tn,
yoke of Great Britain, the Southern
Colonies amongst them, and one o.
principal reasons which they publish
ed to the world in justification of theil
cause, was that the mother country
had imposed slavery and the slave
trade upon them against their wishes,
When our independence was ac-
knowledged and we formed Union
of the Colonies, the South was. still
opposed to the slave trade, and it
would have been declared piracy, and
half of your race in the United States
would not have been here now, but
in Africa; but the Northern men en-
gagged in the trade found it to be so
profitable. and so entirely free from
any conscientious scruplcs were they,
that they insisted that their pious op-
erations should continue twenty years
longer, and the South yielded. These
slave traders invested their. money in
lands, houses and other property
North, which made many of their
grand Children or great grand chill
drcn rich,. and some Of whom are rcw
leading Republicans. - -.
The shareholders Of the Northern
States did the same thing in most in
stances by sending their slaves to
Virginia and other Southern States
and selling them when their slave la,
Dor became less profitable in. a cold
climate than white labor, and have
since amused themselves by abusing
the Southern people as slave drivers
and the Senator, the descendant of
these men, is hero tonight reminding
you of the wrongs you have received
at the hands of your former owners,
and advising you to-aroida po1fitciuf
with your friends and neigh
bors, and to seek an alliance with pco-
pic in distant States, the Rcpubli-
cans of the North. Ircpeat, that the
scruplcs of the North
was not seen cropping out until they
had your race in their pockets, where
they have taken good care to keep
you ever since.
There arc many good people at the
North who are your friends, and who
have never engaged in tRcslave..tradc,
owned slaves or approved Of slavery.
The same can be said Of the South,
and if let alone by the North that
class would have been much larger
in the South. More slaves have been
freed by the act Of their owners in the
South than at the North: George
Washington owned about one thoIs-
and, which he freed at his death. MIR:
Randolph did the same. General
Oglethorpc opposed slavery in Gcor-
eia. There is man on this stage
Who knows that I had an angry con-
troversy many years ago in this city
for endorsing Henry Clay's enamel
patton scheme for Kentucky. lie
was my political leader, | never knew ";
him to do wrong, but I fear we will
never look upon his like again:
The gentleman from Massachusetts,
says you ought to identify yourself
with the Radical party of the North,
because they have wadcd through a
bloody war of four years to set you
free, to give you the right to sit upon
juries, to ride on railroads, testify as
witnesses in courts, and much elsc.-
deny every assertion he has made
on these points, and challenge him to
the proof. He who says that this
war was commenced by the North to
set you free and confer on you u the
rights which you now enjoy, talslfcs
the history of the country; not inton,
tionally, 1 hope. The Government
of the United States, during the war
again and again declared most sol
emnly that this war was not com
menced OF being waged for conquest
or with view Of interfering witf>oul
property in slaves in the States
MIR. Lincoln urged us to return tf
the Union, pledging the Government
to receive us most cordially, ant
give slavery its protection in the Stats
We were threatened with emancipa