The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-07
Emancipation In Brazil.


Emancipation In Brazil.
From The Tribune ...
The telegraph yesterday brought us news
that the last formidable stronghold of slavery
remaining in Christendom has virtually fallen
before the irresistible advance of the great
movement for universal freedom and equal
rights. Brazil has given the death-blow to
the wicked system which has been so long
both her grievous burden and her foul dis
grace. Henceforth, every child born into the
empire is free, and in twenty years the chains
will fall from the limbs of her last surviving
slave. BY this decree, nearly 5000, 900 blacks
are raised up from the dust and though but
few of this generation can hope to see the
day of general emancipation, it is much for
them to know that the curse which rested on
the parents will no longer be transmitted to
the children; it is something that the younger
of them have bright although distant future
to look towards and to wait for. Very likely,
too the dying institution will not be suffered
to linger out the whole of the existence which
the new law accOrds to it; as the benefits of
free labor to the whole country become appre-
ciated, fresh legislation may hasten the ad-
vent Of national liberty and justice.
The State which has Just taken this import
ant step in the road OF progress covers about
of the South American continent being a
little greater in extent than the United States.
Nature has given it the most magnificent river
system in the world. The Amazon rolls it's
mighty waves through the dense forests of the
northern provinces-fOrests teeming with all
the gorgeousness and luxuriance of the
tropics, rich in precious woods and valuable
fruit-bearing trees, and alive with the most
brilliant forms of animal nature and its
tributaries are streams which in any other
part of the world would be called rivers of
the first class The Rio Francisco in the east,
and the atfluents of the La Plata in the
south, give fertility and channels of easy
intercommunication to enormous eXtents OF
country while in the interior stretch the
great grass-grown pampas, with their count
less herds of cattle, covering region seven
times as big as the whole of France.
There are mines of gold; there is coal in
plenty; there is iron; and the annual product
of diamonds is not far from 81 600, 900. There
is not desert in the empire. The whole is
rich loan, covered with vegetation une-
qualled for magnifcence and beauty, except,
perhaps, in some of the fairy-like islands of
the Indian Ocean. Even with her present
meagre development, Brazil supplies half the
world with Coffee and sends abroad also great
quantities of cotton, sugar, and tobacco. She
has exported more of coffee and sugar in
eighteen months than of diamonds in eight y
years. 1t is three hundred years since
the first permanent settlement of the country
by Europeans; yet in all this time, and with
4 all the marvellous wealth of the soil, and the
charms of a genial climate to tempt immigra-
ton, not one acre in a hundred and fifty has
ever felt the labor of the husbandman; and
immense regions are almost as unknown
to-day as when Pincon, the companion OF
! Columbus, first took possession of the
country in the name of the King
of CASTLE. Nor, for many years
at least, has the Government, which
is one of the best, most liberal, and most
/ progressive mOnarchies in the world, spared
any effort to attract the superabundant popi-
lation in Europe. Since the Bra2ilians wrested
their independence from the mother country,
/ Portugal, in 1922, they have devoted them
selves zealously to works of social and indus
trial improvement. They have freedom OF
education, freedom of the press, and freedom
Of religious worship. They have labored hard
TO develop their means of communication with
the Old World, having regular lines of mail
steamers to the principal European ports.
They have steamers on the coast and rivers.
They have railways built by English and
American engineers. Their trade with Great
Britain, France, and the United States is large,
and constantly increasing. Their imports at
the latest date for which we have returns
! 0S63) amounted to $55 600, 900, and their ex-
there were already some fifty foreign colonies,
founded by the aid of liberal grants of Gov
ernment lands; but the colOnists did not
number, all told, more than 60,0O0; and, at
any rate, it is not by banding themselves
together in isolated communities that immi-
grants can materially benefit the country Of
their adoption. The infusion of new blood
must pemeate the whole body polite; and if
the old blood and the new cannot mingle, one
orthe other will be driven out.
|. ~ is precisely because there was an element
IN the social and political life of Brazil which
repelled these sturdy settlers, that the great
south American empire is still so thinly peo-
pied; having only about 5000, 900 inhabitants
or less than quarter of our own population
The same cause which, in this country has
uniformly directed the stream of immigration
to the Northern and Western instead of to the
Southern States, has been constantly counter
acting all the inducements held out by natnre
and by man to draw settlers to Brazil. Slavery
and wholesome free immigration ara natural
enemies, and always have been, the world
over. Brazil has beckOned to the settIar viii
one hand, while with the other she has nnbaid
the great Wickedness that drives him awsv
Fhe first eolOnists enslayed the Indians. and,
despite the futile measures of emancipation
e1rs ,.l.eV -..uW ul4 10 Win