The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-05-17

SAYS IN his "E00is Errand, Ine oOutn
had controlled the government for fifty
years, and New England was jealous
Jealous to evaporation, and slavery was
but the shibboleta that Intensified their
animosity. They made no war upon the
slave trade, but rather winked at it and
enjoyed its rich returns. This is not an
assertion but fact if their own histori:
ans are to be believed. In 1920 Justice
Story, the great jurist, charged the grand
juries of his New England circuit in the
following words:
"We have but too many undeniable
proofs from unquestionable sources that
the African slave tradeis still carried on
among US with all the implacable feroc-
ity and Unsuitable rapacity of former
times. Avarice has grown more subtle in
its eyasions of the law. It watches and
seixes its prey with an appetite quick.
ened rather than suppressed. American
citizens are stepped up to their very
mouths in this iniquity."
W. W. Story, the gifted son, in writing
the biography of the father, says: "The
fortunes of many men of prominence
we're secrtely invested in this infamous
traffic. Slavery itself had hardly dis
appeared in New England when the
traffic took on new life and was winked
at. A man might still have position in
society and claim consideration as a gen.
tleman, nay, as Christian, while his
ships were frefghted with human cargoes
and his commerce was in the blood and
pain of his fellow creatures. This prac.
tice was abstractly inveighed against, but
was secretly INDUCED in. The chances
of great fortunes inaamed the cupidity of
men in my fathers circuit. 1t is notori.
ous that many large fortunes we're tie
blood money of the slave trade, and owed
their existence to the wretched cargoes
that survived the horrors of the middle
passage. But this charge of my father to
the grand jurfes of Massachusetts and
Rhode Island seemed only to arouse the
passions of those engaged in the traffic.
The newspapers of the day publicly de.
nounced my father, and one paper in
Boston declared that any Judge who
would deliver such charge ought to be
hurled from the bench"
And so the traffic went on unmolested.
The New York Evening Post stated that
no lees than eighty five vessels left the
port of New York in 1859 and 1860,
built, manned and equipped in New
England for the African slave trade, and
that they brought away not less than
10000 slaves to Brazil and the South.
But still there were no prosecutions.
The navies of the world seemed to bs
asleep or perhaps the traffic was still
winked at by the merchant ships that
trayersed the seas. Whether 1t has
ceased since Southern slavery was abol-
ished is not known, but telegram to the
Associated Press tells of a cargo that was
recently wrecked off Madagaster coast.
This much has been recorded to show
to the youths of this generation that nei-
ther Georgia nor the South was responsi'
BILE for slavery nor the traffic in them
across the seas, for from 1776 down to
the present, there was but single
attempt made by Southern man to In.
troduce African slaves into Southern
port, and that attempt was failure.
The little yacht called the "Wanderer,"
was seized and condemned and her off,
GERS pursued with unrelenting vigor by q
Southern man, General Henry R. Jack.
SON, who was then assistant attorney
general of the United States.
But, after all, slavery was really the
provoking cause of the late unhappy war
between the States. Georgia seeded
from the Union not because she desired
to perpetuate slavery, but rather because
she could not maintain her rights under
the constitution. She desired an outlet
in the territories, an outlet for the negro,
for their rapid increase was alarming.
She believed that it WAS perilous to
await results. Her white population
who were not slave owners were rapidly
emigrating to the West. The most
thoughtful minds in Georgia and espe-
cially those advanced in years, saw and
felt the peril of their situation-secession
meant war and to remain in the Union
was to be imprisoned by State lines with
an inferior race that might become ter.
ror. a few slaves had been msnumitted
and sent to Siberia, but the result was
bad, very bad.
Major Waters, wealthy planter of
Gwipnett County, had by will manumit.
ted thirty.seven slaves and his executor
delivered them in Savannah to the colo.
nization society. They were we'll pro
vided with clothing and each with $l00
in gold and sent to Siberia free of charge.
Thirty of them died within twelve
months-the remaining seven escaped
from their exile and found passage in q
merchant vesse! to Philadelphia. From
there they made their return to Georgia
through the friendly aid of Howell Cobb
and Alex. H. Stephens, who furnished
them with the means of coming home.
This case is fully reported in one of the
earlier volumes of our supreme court
reports, for the will of Major Walters
was attacked by his heirs.
But the common people of the South,
the yeomanry, the toilers, were no lovers
of the negro. They realized that he was
in their way. The masters owned the
best of the land and had the best stock
and the best houses and tools and ve-
hicles, while the toilers had to take