The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-07-29
. Coolies for ihe Southern States.

Mr.. Savage, the United States Vice Consul
that cargo Of coolies will be landed at some
Southern port, in violation of the laws Of Con
gress. The cargo to which the Consul prob
ably refers has already been landed-oyer
eighty coolies having left Havana on the
French st Gamer Dalien, ON the 4th July, az
irving at the quarantine station below New
Orleans on the 9th, where they remained till
the 18th, when they were brought up to the
city and distributed to the planters who had
contracted for them. Othershipments ofsmall
numbers have from Ito time come for
ward. The latest reported arrival was by the
American brig William Robertson, which
brought twenty-thfee coolies from Havana,
arriving at Pass aPOutre last Thursday even
ing. For over year this business has been
going on, and it is estimated that about two
thousand of these laborers have left Cuba for
New. Orleans during the time. Many South
ern planters visited Cuba last winter for the
express purpose Of contracting for coolies,
and nearly all took from ten. to forty away
with them. '.. f.-r,
In the West Indies. the cody trade is ex-
ceedingly brisk. The ship Salamanca is re
ported at Kingston. Jamaica, with 392 out of
404 shipped at Calcutta 121 days before
Many of these men spoke English. Ship load
after ship load comes pouring into Cuba
The numbers that succumb to the hardships
ofthe plantations are enormous and appall-
ing, and the demand is always active. They
are treated precisely like the negro slaves. A
Cuban doctor, Off speculative turn OF mind,
invested s1700 in twetny coolies who could
not be disposed ofby the importer on account
of being unfit for labor from disease. The
doctor, after successfully treating their disor-
ders, was at last accounts expecting to sell
them for $3.50 apiece--an. advance of s165 a
head. The whole business bears such re-
semblance to the African slave trade that it
seems to have been a needless trouble to abol-
ish the old traffic at all. ..,t, ....-
1t is absolutely necessary to enforce the
law Of Congress forbidding the importation Of
such hborers into this country Wherever
they go they introduce the deadly habit of
opium smoking, and they never work when
they can steal. Cuba is suffering considera-
bly, from their malpractices. cases of assassina-
tior and poisoning committed by the coolies
being quite numerous, Their labor is natur-
ally preferred by the Southern planters, as
more nearly resembling the slave labor to
which they have been accustomed. But slav-
fry mi1et ha abolisbed in name anil IN dood
in this country. We cannot consent 10 see it
re-established in any form, Ii is not demo-
cratic; it will surely breed trouble; it must
cease. The freedmen of the South must do
the labor OF the South, for. reasonable wages.
They need the employment; the planters
need their labor; ;they must help'one another.
What pandemonium should we lIaye in
the Southern States, if this business should
be allowed to go on. Suppose she importation
OF coolies should proceed unchecked, till all
the plantations are stocked with them. The
coolies themselves would constitute new
and dangerous element. The negroes, without
land or employment. would have to choose
between robbery and starvation. Will the
government allow this work to 40. on, in vio-
lation Of the plainest dictates of prudence
and the mandates of the law itself? Here is
a field for the superfuous energy which Mr..
Johnson seems inclined to expend upon the
matter of recons ruction. If he holds it his
duty to enforce all the laws, let him turn his
attention to this law which is openly and al
most daily violated. =. ..-. -. -,...,.-.