New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-05-24
TIE "MIDpbR PASSAGE OF TIE TEXAN
NATpTp TRAnE

He made and loYeth ALL"
During the palmy days Of Roman OF
Pagan civilization millions upon millions
of white captives upon battle'felds or from
conquered cities were driven to Italy and
sold to masters who had the power Of life
and death over their slaves. 1t is well for
us that time has drawn a veil Of OBJ
liyion over the inhuman cruelties of those
early ages. When it became shameful fol
white men to sell and main their white
brethren, cruelty did by no means cease
but other and weaker races became the
victims. The Spaniards alone destroyed
thirty-fve millions of human beings on this
continent before the dawn of the nineteenth
century. When the race of red men was
well nigh exhausted the poor African be-
came tine victim of an almost worldwide
system Of slavery, upon the cruel
denominations Of which even the
civilized nations looked, only fifty
years ago, with the same csllous in
difference as previously in the case of the
Indian and the white man. Will the world
ever forget the horrors of the Middle
Passage 2" But in the course Of time that
Public Opinion, which is stronger than
kings and dynasties and slaveoerats, babe
the master break the shackles of his slave
and let the bondmen go free.
Mans cruelty to man makes countless
millions mourn" was written when millions
Of men endured, even among Christian
peoples, the cruel hardships of slavery.
But the weaker races have vindicated them
selves, and now the cruelty Of man is, at
least in Christian lands, wreaked on the
poor brutes which God permits to live for
our aid and comfort, which have neither
speech nor knowledge, but must bear their
tOrtures in silent agony. Even animals
have rights which white men are bound to
respect, rights which have found expression
in some Of the old European codes and are
insisted upon in the more civilized and
humane communities.
But aside from these, who can look into
the honest faces, into the soft and tender
eyes Of the horse and the OK without feeling
that it is worse than inhuman to intlict tor
ture upon them. The slave can nurse his
revenge, he may even strike his master to
the earth, but not so these gentle creatures
which insinctively cover before the power
Of man. And if it is cruel to infict I'M
necessary hurt upon our fellow men, how
much 2rueler, how much baser and more
cowardly is it to inHict pain upon the
specifies and helpless creatures of Gods
providence
A few days ago the Austin, steamer of
the Morgan line, left one of the ports Of
Texas, having on board some three humid
red cattle for the New Orleans market. AS
is always the case on the steamers engaged
in this trade, the cattle were crowded, one
might say wedged together on the main
deck, as close as they could stand. That
is the way they are slowed. When net
long at sea gale came on and there hap
pened what often occurs on these steamers
or is liable to occur at any time, but is
too horrible and sickening for description.
The ship struggled many, many hours
with the storm, and hundreds Of poor
brutes within, perhaps almost perishing
with thirst and hunger when first driven on
board, swaying, falling, trampling each
other to death, dying of thirst and heat
and torture which we will not try to de-
pict. Let the Imagination of the reader
supply he horrible details. Suffice it to
say that when the steamer found a barber
one hundred and nineteen of the Door
creatures already dead were lifted out and
thrown into the sea.
But the reader will say that this is an |
exceptional, an unavoidable case. Not at |
all. Every one of the great ship loads Of
cattle that leaves the coast of Texas is
liable to the same fate. From ten to
twenty steamers are engaged in this trade,
and every gale that sweeps over the gulf In
wolves similar calamity, the death Of thirty,
fifty, a hundred or more Of shese poor dumb
creatures. Of the many thousands Of cat.
tie shipped from Texas to New Orleans. II
is estimated that at least cne-tenth perish
on the way. If you doubt the truth Of cur
statement, take yoAr stand almost any day
at the Stock Landing of New Orleans and
see the dead carcasses thrown into
the river, while the rest that week
before were fat and sleek and healthy
on the prairies Of Texas, stagger forth
hollow-eyed, emacisted, and with the little
strength that is left them plunging their
mouths into the muddy cutters fer drop
Of moisture.
Has the great steamship kingn who owns
he feet Of steamers running " this middle
passage never Witnessed such sight az
hist Then we advise him to make trip.
sailors will tell you that the
lights to be witnessed on these ships are
ickening, revolving.
Is tat all strange that New Orleans beel,
which should be the cheapest, sweetest,
md healthiest IN the world, is 50 dear, 50
eathsry, 90 insipidf II Is half cooked
live. When we eat our breakfast steaks
Ne eat ofaentimss concentrated hunger
md thirst and torture AID cruelty such as
70 iiying man should Be permitted to 10
liet upon Code poor dumb creatures.
me savage Ahysinisa uho snts auiverloa i
leaks from the tanks Of living oxen 4
1ageiful in comasrfnau We wes,.r ~ -. !