Year: 1859

A Mississippi paper (the.' Cross City,
thus gives it's reasons for fayoring the re.
opening of the foreign slave trade:


"a great deal can be said pro and con
We shall confine ourself 10 arguments in
favor of the foreign slave trade. And the
first is, that it will give political power to
the South. 1t were fatal Iblindnessy to
ignore the truth that the iip great sec.
tions Of this country are llstinct, and a
fatal error to suppose that tlere can be an
equality Of rights without NJ squality o.
political power to sustain Mem Ii the
North has an excess, the efth will gov
ern, and pice versa. 1t is iftsrlf inopos.
sible that all the, paper iD4,i Ii|ieilts upon
earth can giEe politicsl ID cf IA.
cial and political Conditions. Under these
circumstances, tile only road to security
is the road to political power. The slave
trade will give us political power. Every
fifty thousand slaves that come will give
us the right to thirty thousand votes in the
National Legislature, and thus, therefore,
will contribute directly to the political
rower of the South. But more than this.
The labor basis at the South is too small
to sustain even our present superstructure
or direction. Slave labor is too efficient
and too cheap to permit Of bireling labor
in competition with i. It's too valuable
in agriculture to be used at cotton prices
in manufactures and the mechanic arts.


"The difference at the South will be
harmonized by the foreign slave trade
Every white man of capacity will own his
slave. Every man of enterprise will own
his labor. All of the ruling race will
come to the same social standpoint; all
will cast their votes from the same posi-
ton; as well at home as abroad, they will
have common interest and common
cause; the institution of American Slavery
will become reintegrated and erect, and
so compact and firm, will stand not only
to sustain itself, but to sustain the South,
sublime and composed, among all the
storms that rage among other nations of the
earth.


GAS an act of justice to the poor as to
the rich, to non-slavebolders as to slave
holders, it is important that this state Of
things sho olld come about. The basis Of
slave labor, as / have said, is too narrow
for all to stand on. To men of wealth, i,
does not matter much; it is equally well
with them, whether. they are on or off the
platform. If of, they can purchase back
again, and it does not matter whether the
ticket of admission be at one hundred OF
one thousand dollars. Ii wall be the in
dex of its value, and it is Of little concern
to him whether his wealth have this OF
any other representative. But to men
compelled to work their way. it makes all
the difference between their being slave
owners or non -elave-owners. They are
out of the ranks of masters not from choice.
They may affect Indifference to a privilege
from which they are excluded, but they
have no repugnance to that condition; per-
haps the most common wish is, that they
lay approach it; and it is but fair and
just to that large class of our citizens, that
slaves shall be allowed to come in numbers
sufficient for them all, and thai they shall
have not only The opportunity Of joining
the class of slave propr;etors, but shall
have every motive OF interest, as of feeling,
to do SO, and affirm the nature and expand
the fortunes of that particular form of 80
ciety with whose fortunes they have
CHANGED to be associated"