Year: 1863

From the Free South, Beauford. 8. c. Apr 10, 'ss


Abolition-How will IT Affect the Norths


IN days gone by, when the abolition
OF slavery was urged upon the attention
of the people, one of the eommonest
expedients resortsd to by the pro-slave-
ry party, to resist the influence of the
growing anti-slavery sentiment of the
North, was the assertion that the pc
cuniary interest Of the north was 90
dependent upon the slave system, that
the abolition of the latter would inevi-
tably result in commercial ruin and
bankruptcy. In spite of the millions Of
dollars that have slipped through the
fingers of northern men in consequence
ofthe rebellion, which, to a great ex-
tent, was consequence of the bank
ruptcy of the south, there are still to be
found men who think that with the des-
truction of slavery must come serious
loss to the manufactures and trade of
the north. With peopele who believe
in God and IN the equal justice of the


laws which he has established for the
government of the world, no argument
is needed-to show that the perpetration
of wrong toward one class of men.


must result in loss to all others; aud
that the doing ofjustice, however much
it may seem to interfere with the ac-
customed avenues oftrade, must really,
by restoring things to their natural and
true relations, increase the prosperity
and happiness of all concerned.
The natural and sufficient answer to
those persons who anticipated ruined
trade as the result of freedom, was, that
by making the four million slaves free
and independent laborers, with the


wants and desires that 60 with that
condition, the demand for all those
articles the manufacture and sale of
which have increased the wealth of the
north to so great an extent, would be
increased tenfold. The owner of three
hundred slaves, bought, we will say,
one hundred pairs of shoes in the course
of year, (and this, be it remembered,
in rather above than under the average,l
now in state of freedom, instead Of
one, there will be three hundred pairs
of shoes needed. And SO it will be
with all the necessaries of life, while
there will be corresponding demand
for the adoruments and luxuries of life
also. Any one who has witnessed, as
we have, the readiness with which the
colored people of this department spend.
their money for the comforts and nec-
essaries of life, can have no doubt of
the reilly immense opportunities which
will be opened to northern enterprise
by the abolition of slavery. just as
rapidly as they acquire the means, they
will desire to possess themselves of
those things that are supposed to mark
in a peculiar manner the condition ofa
superi ,r and free people.


With all the talk about southern.
hospitality, it is evident to us that q
large proportion of the planters of the
south live in style which would have
been scarcely tolerable to a fourth rate
Pennsylvania farmer. Now let these
planters be freed from the incubus Of
slavery, or let nothern men get the con-
troll of the plantations, and then with
the spirit of enterprise which freedom
will infuse into all departments of labor,
new and entirely satisfactory state of
things will soon appear. Where there
is one decent and babitable house. q
dozen will be needed, with the furni-
tnre and others things that belong toa
decent house. In fact, there is scarce
ly single article manufactured at the
north which will not find a ready and
profitable market at the south and in
addition to this, the wealth Of the south
being founded upon something real, the
labor of free and intelligent people,
commercial bankruptcy and reputation
may be considered among the things of
the past