Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-14

under initial subsection to civilization, the
ambition Of the nations Of Europe, and the
proselyting vigor of the church.
But the conquest of the continent is to
be far more difficult than was that of North
America. The pioneer forces are to meet
not oaly savage tribes, but those actuated
by far grosser spirit and possessed off less
of tie nobility of nature, than character
lied the aboriginal tribes Of our own con-
tinent. The natural obstacles to be over
come are immensely greater than those
encountered By our forefathers in the New
World. The climate in the interior
is at first almost uncomfortable by the
white-skinned races, and scclimatization is
a long and trying process. Theslave trade
is a power to be overcome that will de-
mand the best efforts of civilization, and
that Will be broken up only after long,
painful and persistent campaign. 1t is
said that fully 100000 slaves are sold out
of equatorial Africa annually, and that the
market for this traffic in human flesh, is
extending and is more than ever rapacious
in its demands. While the consumption
is about 100000 human beings, fully
100000 are taken, the odd 100000 dying
by the way, or being knocked in the head
by the slavers as weak and unfit for the
journey or the market, while $4,000 others
are butchered in the assaults Of capture.
Indeed, the shocking character of the slave
traffic in Africa is beyond the powers of
description, and the horrors of the march,
the shipping by sea, the brutality of the
captors and the sufferings of the unfortunate
victims no pen can adequately describe.
Turkey, Egypt itself, and Persia are the
chief slave markets. In Tripoli, Tunis
and Morocco the traffic has revived in re-
cent years greatly, and in two of these
countries the slave trade is the most i'm
portant source of import revenue.
The task now before civilization in the
reduction of the interior of Africa, is thus
seen to be one of the most difficult ever
undertaken; but that it is to be accom-
plished, and that within the very early
future, there is no longer any doubt in the
minds of the leading men of the Govern
ments which propose to undertake it. In
this conquest the United States will
probably play no part at all important;
nor is it necessary that this country should
deeply OR officially engage in it. There is
strength, and money, and determination on
the other side, sufficient for the work.
HEROIC WORDS FROM THE SOUTH.
All honor to Governor Gordon, Of
Georgia. He at least has discovered that
the people of the non-seceding States did
not take up arms in enmity to their breth-
rem of the South; that they did not rally
about the old flag in hatred for their fell
low-citizens but the higher and nobler
sentiment of patriotism inspired them-a
loftier idea than could be bounded by any
localism or hedged in by selfshness. On
the evening of November 30th Governor
Gordon, in an eloquent speech at Chicago,
rebuked the utterance of Bradley T. John
son in a recent letter, in which he charged
that a mercenary spirit actuated the peo-
pie of the Northern States of the Union
in prosecuting the war against rebellion.
The Governor said:
The North rallied round the old flag of the re-
| public with an enthusiasm and unity that OBJ
liberated for the time parties and party division
It enshrned in the deepest recesses of its hottest
! affections the union of these States as sacred.
! 1t idoliZed the Union as if not synonymous with
| republican liberty itself, at least inseparable
| from it. To defend the Union. therefore, to
! save the Union and all that the Union involved
| to Northern thought, was the one sentiment
that dominated pulpit press and people, and
reused an enthusiasm in this section that swept
like cyclone through country precincts, vii
lagos and hamlets.
Governor Gordon is too sensible man,
too broad of view and too careful a student
of history to make the mistake of miscon-
STRUNG the motive that actuated the pee
pie of the North Governor Gordon is a
leader of the Southern Democracy
man the South is proud to honor. His
words, therefore, may be taken as a reflex
Of the better sentiment of the South, and
as indicating that the true men of that
section of our common country entertain
towards their brethren of the North nc
longer the prejudices and the ill-will Of
the era of the war, but are beginning to
understand the true motive that impelled
the North to arms.