The Portland daily press., 1867-05-09

B aI
The Southerners who emigrated to Brazil TO
enjoy the pleasing associations of the speculiar
iushtatlon have discovered their mistake
"Abiishen," says Mr.. Nasby, commenting up
on the fail elections, "ablishenl what a dreary
waste of ablishen!" and the Southern gentle
men in Brazil must have re-ecboed the crv wit,
a double barreled wailr' With negro eauali.
ty already the rule in their new home and say-
cry under the ban OF the law apd fast disap
pearing, there is nothing lett for them but to
curse the unhappy days upon which they have
fallen and take refuge in the perusal or compo-
sition of works of fiction. uncle Toms Cab
in" is already as old as "Ivanhoe." The age OF
slavery is as dead as the age ofchivalry In
few islands belonging to the Spanish crown
the institution still fingers for little while, as
a few traces of teudalsm still remain in Eu-
rope; but the tree is girdled, and these lineer-
ing leaves are fast withering. 1t seems but the
other day that LOvejoy was killed for question:
ing the divine right of slavery, and over his
grave at Alton the imploring inscription jam
parce sepulto, Spare at least his dead body"
still addresses the ruthless Power which has
passed away forever. 1t is only seven years
since John Brown was executed in Virginia for
trying to hasten the great and glorious emsnci-
patton which has since come to pass in this
country. We have emancipated 100000
Of slaves in the United States since that day
in Russia 25,O0O 900 Of serfs have been set free;
and now Brazil has released 100000 of
1t Is but q few years since the slave trade
was thriving industry in, Brazil. Portugal
indeed bound herself by treaty with England
in 1915. to abolish the trade, and Brazil, having
Conquered her independence seven years later,
renewed the compact in 1925. Yet in 1889 it
was estimated that 10000 negroes were import
ed every year, and in 1s49 the traffic had only
been reduced by one fourth, although England
had then for four years declared the slave
traders outlaws and amenable to any power
into whose hands they might fall. In 1850
Brazil by statute pronounced the slave trade
piracy, and two years later the Emperor was
able to announce its virtual extinction.
In the meantime there was growing oppo-
sition in the Empire, nos merely to the slave
trade, but to slavery itself The prejudice o.
color, so general in the United States, is un-
known in Brazil Out of population of about
eight millions only about two millions are
white; the remaining three-fourths are com
posed of Indians, negroes and half-breeds, free
and slave. Under these conditions slavery has
not produced the distinctions of caste which
have attended it in many other countries. The
laws have made manumission easy. Many
slaves have been freed on condition of serving
in the war against Paraguay. Once emanci-
pated the negro finds every calling and office
as fully open to him as to the white In So
ciety thus constituted, with freedom of educa-
ton, of the press and of religious worship al
ready established, emancipation was sure to
come in time, and the example of the United
Stetes and OF Russia has only fastened a re-
suit which was already inevitable. e'd
By the terms of the Imperial decree, all chill
dren born after the Sth OF April last are free,
and slavery is to cease wholly at the expiration
of twenty years from that date. 1t is not like
ly that the dying institution will linger through
that period, though the slaves of Brazil a,e
said to be much less intelligent than the nc
groes of the Southern States.