Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, October 01, 1857, Image 1
jno. l. hiiieb & co., proprietor* 1 An Independent Journal: For tlie Promotion of the Political, Social, Agricultural and Commercial Interests of the South. jlewis m. qeist, pubiuher.
VOL. 3. YORKVILLE, S C., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1857. ^TO. 39.
|t Slafce Crak
From the Marion Star.
SPEECH OF 0. W. MILLER,
To Citizens of Barnwell, at Wylde-Moore, 1
August 2tith, 1857, in favor of Re-open- ,
ing the African Slave Trade.
Fellow-Citizens: Having been invited
to address you on this occasion, I shall take 1
pleasure in reasoning with you, on a subject
of vital interest to us all. It is true, as nay ;
friend, Hon. J. D. Allen, said, in his com- i
pliroentary introduction, that I was born in <
the District of Sumter; and now a citizen 1
of Marion, I come from the Eastern border, 1
te "Barnwell. the Western hnrder of the '
State, to enjoy his and your hospitality, and
commune with you in terms of sympathy and
brotherly love. Marion shakes hands with i
Barnwell; and may friendship and harmony f
cement them in indissoluble bonds. i
We have reason to rejoice that we, in 1
common with our fellow-citizens of the Union, 1
are this day enjoying, in peace and prosper- '<
ity, the blessings of civil and religious liber- <
ty, under a republican government; and <
our rising glory is brilliant and dazzling, even in
comparison with the majestic pomp, pow- t
er and parade of trans-Atlanticand Oriental 1
nations. Nevertheless, our Confederacy, f
and especially the slave-holding States, have 1
not yet reached their culminating point of J
civilization, wealth and splendor. Great as ?
we are, we are still in a state of progess; and 1
the South will be slow in attaining her full a
and due growth, in national greatness, with- c
ahf Viof nOAnccorr orM tfinnnl loVirtr wKlnk ic I
vuv HUOV utvvupoij auuikiVUdi mvvt n mvu m ?
alone to be supplied by re-opening the Afri- t
can Slave Trade. This subject 1 propose to [
discuss; and the time is come, not only for c
discussion, but for action. Europe clamors c
for more cotton than the- world at present i
supplies; France has already contracted for (
10,000 African slaves, called apprentices, to *
be employed in the West Indies; while the I
South, with 1,000,000 of square miles of c
territory, embracing cotton lands enough to e
supply rhe world, cultivates but 5,000,000
of acres in cotton?only one acre in 12S of t
her soil; and this is the best that can be a
done till Africa shall pour in upon us more b
of her population to reclaim our fertile lands. r
The high price and scarcity of cotton have o
stopped thousands of looms, aDd manufacturers
are coufiniug their operations to the r'
finer fabrics. The want of labor has made ~
sugar so dear as to be almost a mere article c
of luxury; and population, all the world a
over, is pursuing its natural law of outrun- n
ning production. Nature has ordained that c
our best lands can only be cultivated, under ^
our burning sun, by African muscle; and tl
we see that, with the requisite labor, our p
vast territory may sustain in comfort a popu- v
lation larger than that of China; that we F
may make every wilderness and every swamp b
now under the dominion of water a bloom- a
ing garden, beautiful as a rice-field ; improve sl
the whole face of the country with roads, n
canals, residences, churches, schools, col- 11
leges, manufactures, and other monuments a
of civilization ; make ourselves independent, t(
and the producers of grain and raw material
for the world ; and on the wings of our own c
commerce carry them to every corner of the c
earth; so that the South may proudly lift t
her head pre-eminent among the nations, t
crowned with a chaplet more enviable than n
the diadems of Eastern royalty. But with o
this prospect before us, and the boon within r
our grasp, by re-opening the African slave t
trade, supine procrastination or political in- j
trigue advises us to postpone discussion and t
action upon the subject. It is a subject of f
too much importance for delay; and, in dis- j
cussing it, I will consider? v
1. Jhe morality of holding slaves and of j a
re-opening the slave trade. j 1
2. The philanthropy of acquiring and 1
holding African slaves. t
3. The benefit to the South of re-opening s
the slave trade. t
t. And the practicability of effecting it. 1
In the first place, I shall show, in few I \
words, thattheservitude of the African is in i
accordance with the will of Almighty God; c
and he who does the will of God cannot be ; j
in the wrong. Slavery existed iu the priuuc- 11
val world, before civilized society originated,
when man was pastoral and noruadic, living
in tents, wandering to and fro and up and
down in the earth, driving and feeding his
flocks for subsistance, with no better than
patriarchal government. If we float up the
stream of time to the days of Adam and
Eve, we shall find tho germ of slavery, when
God put Eve under the " rule" of Adam,
for eating the forbidden fruit. Truly, this
"rule" has come down to our day, but. like
the current of the river Arar, it is now of
such gentleness and smoothness in its course,
that it is difficult for the spectator to discern
whether control flows from mau or woman.
After the Flood, when Noah and his three j
sons, Sbem Ham and Japheth, were on earth, j
the curse of servitude was denounced on the
African race, through Noah, by inspiration
from God.?(Brown's Bible Dec., Noah.)
Ham, after the Flood, became the father of
Canaan. Noah began to be a husbandman,
and planted a vineyard. He doubtless igno- i
rantly and ipnocently, drank too freely of j i
the wine which he had made; and, as the n
book of Genesis (chap. 9th) relates, becoming
intoxicated and uncovered in his tent, i
Ham saw him and spoke of it to his two i
brothers:
"And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw j
the nakedness of his farther and told his i
two brethren without. ,
"And Shem and Japheth took a garment ! ;
and laid it upon their shoulders, and went j:
backward, and covercchthe nakedness of their j
father : and their faces were backward, and ,
they saw not their father's nakedness.
"And Noah awoke from his wine and knew
what his younger son had done unto him.
"And he said, Cursed be Canaan ; a servant
of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
"And he said Blessed be the Lord God
of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
"God shall enlargeJapheth, and he shall
dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan
shall be his servant."
Both the curse and the blessings of Noah
have been fulfilled in a wonderful manner.?
The descendants of Japheth conquered those
of Shem and dwelt in their tents; and the
posterity of Hem have been servants everywhere.
In the dispersion of Noah's posterity
over the world, (Sears' History of the
Bible, page 36,) "the descendants of Japheth
not only possessed all Europe, but also
i considerable portion of Asia. The posterity
of Shem had in their possession the
Greater and Lesser Asia, and probably all
the countries to the East as far as China.?
The descendants of Ham possessed all Africa,
with a great part of Asia."
The curse of Noah upon Ham's posterity,
as proclaimed against hisson Canaan, for the
sin of the father, fell with awful severity on
ill his race, both in Asia and Africa. The
Canaanitesin Asia felt the scourge of a broken
law, when conquered by the Hebrews;
ind in Africa the condition past and present
if Ham's offspring but shows the certainty
if God's avenging wrath. The continent of
Africa was peopled by three aboriginal races,
;he decendants of Ham. Egypt was settled
ly the descendants of Mizraim, the second
son of Ham; the Lybian race are descendtnts
in part from a branch of the family of
Mizraim, and in part from Phut, the third
on of Ham; and the third race was the Ethio)ian
or Black, which was known to the Greek
.it). rrn.- ni i. j.
iuu xvuuiau jiisiunaus. xuu Diace raca, ue:endants
of Cush, the eldest soq of Ham,
)Ossessed at first Nubia and Abyssinia, on
he Upper Nile. Western Africa has boen
>eop!ed by some one or more of the families
if Ham, who have scattered over the whole
lontinent. This region and modern Ethiopia,
n Southern Africa, were unknown to the
Greeks and Romans. Western Africa, the
egion from whence our slaves were first
irought, is a rich soil, producing spontaleously
many neoessaries for human subsistnce,
extending along the western coast of
V frioa from the 16tb degree of north latitude,
he southern border of Sahara, to Bcnguela,
bout the 16th degree of south latitude, emracing
from 200 to 300 miles of land inteiorward
froin the ocean, and about 1,00^,000
f square miles of territory, with a populaion
of about 80,000,000 of negroes, in the
elation, at this day, of either master or slave
-a slavery of the most galling and degrading
haracter?all sunk in superstition, idolatry
nd barbarism. Missionary white labor has
ever been able to redeem them from this
onditiou, except in few instances, and these
rere only like shot cast on the calm ocean of
tieir depravity, making but a momentary riple,
the impress of which was soon lost to
iew. For four hundred years, since the
'ortuguese first commenced missionary labor,
nt little progress has been made in civilizing
nd Christianizing them, and in most intances
where Gospel light seemed to illurine
their savage souls, they havebnckslided
ito inquity, "like the dog that is turned
gaiu tohis*vomit, or the saw that is washed
3 her wallowing in the mire." The land
> beautiful and fertile, but cursed with a
limatc and with diseases which the negro
an eudure, but which will forever prevent
he white race from possessing and eultivaing
the soil. If Providence, with a beniglant
hand, had not bestowed the blessings
f food and adaptation to the climate, on the
legro, in that country, he would long since
lave perished; but it seems as if Western
Africa had been destined to be the cradle of
hat hardy muscle which is indispensable
or developing those lands owned and occupied
by the descendants of Shem and Japheth,
vhose servant Canaan is doomed to be. If
my one doubts that slavery is sanctioned by I
leaven, let him remember that even the He- j
irews?God's chosen people?under their i
heoeracy, held slaves. The patriarchs held
laves; and the good Abraham, the father of
he faithful, had three hundred and more,
n the march of the Israelites through the
vildcruess, after the Exodus, Hcaven-dioctcd
by fire at night and by cloud in the
lay, slavery existed and accompanied them ;
ind in the thundering?, and in the lighting?,
in the earthquake, the smoke, aud'
he trumpet-sound of Sinai, when God dcivered
the ten commandments to Moses,
our moral law,') slavery was recognized and
mplicitly sanctioned. In two of the coninandments
we find this : in that concerning
he Sabbath, saying, "In it thou shnlt do
10 work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh:er,
nor thy man servant, nor tin/ maid terrainand
also in that cornceruiug covetjusness,
saying, "Thou shalt not covet thy
leighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his
nut id-sen ant," &c. Would God havetolcrlted
sin ? When Jesus Christ came incarnate
into the world, he found slavery existing
in Greece, Rome, Egypt, Judea, and almost
uverywhere among the nations. lie came
to inculcate a system of true religion and
morality, as well as to atone by His blood
for the sin of the world. .He was God, and
His mission divine, lie fearlessly deuouneed
wickedness everywhere. He attacked not
only the religion of the Pagans, but what,
in many instances, was politically, because
morally wrong; and if he had thought slavery
a sin, he would have denounced, condemned
and forbidden it. But there is not
a word in his teachings, nor those of his apostles,
against it. On the contrary, we find
it noticed and sanctioned in mauy places in
the New Testament; one of which I will
cite as sufficient for this argument. Paul,
in his Epistle to the Collossians, (chap. 2d,)
says : "Servants obey in all things your masters
according to the flesh; not with eye-service,
as men-pleasures, but in singleness of
heart, fearing God : And whatsoever ye do,
do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto
men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive
tho reward of the inheritance, for ye
serve the Lord Christ." What can the human
mind disoern in this Scripture, but an
approval of slavery; that the servant is ordered
to serve his master, and in so doing he
serves God ? All this is consistent with the
law of God, which ordained slavery before
Christ came, who came not to abrogate, but
to fulfil the law.
In the next place, are the buyers and holders
of slaves philanthropists ? It. is only a
false philanthropy which frowns on African
slavery, disregarding Holy Writ, and in the
impotent folly of human wisdom^ seeking a
higher law than what has been given by Omniscience.
Abolitionism in this country is
the offspring of that mistaken philosophy
which was taught by the poets, orators and
moralists of Europe about the time of our
Revolution, and of the fanatic genius of uni
1 ! *__ t r _ _ J J -
versai equality wnicn iorerau ana roue uu
the storm of the French Revolution. Some,
however of the wisest and best theologians
of Europe have vindicated and approved of
the African slave trade, and amoug these
was the Rev. John Newton. The impress
of erroneous sentiments found its way. about
that time, to America; and Thomas Jefferson
and others wrote against slavery, as contrary
to humanity and political equality. However
great Jefferson was as a politician, we should
not learn our morals from one who, like
Paine, Yoltaire and Hume, rejected Jesus
Christ and denied his divinity. The announcement
by Jefferson, in the Declaratiou
of Independence, that "all men are created
equal," is a most egregious fallacy, which
has been exploded by modern thinkers,
and especially with signal ability by our late
distinguished statesman John C. Calhoun.
The human race is no more entitled to equality
of civil liberty than to equality in property,
to equality in physical strength, or to e
equality in personal beauty. Civil liberty
has its degrees, and to suppose that all men
are entitled to share an equal portion of it,
is refuted by the fact that all men are not
fitted by nature and education for taking and
bearing it, equally. Civilized communities
and governments, such as we of the United
States are, may take and bear a high degree
of liberty] but the ignorance, mental incapacity
and barbarism of the African unfit
him for that large degree of liberty, disqualify
him for self-government, and make him,
only to some extent, free and happy under a
civilized master, who is to exercise over him
an absolute despotic but humane government.
Every attempt by the African at self-gov,ernment
has failed, or sunk him lower in the
scale of liberty, and subjected him more and
more to the bondage of a corrupt nature, of
lawless passion, of superstition and penury.
Hajti and St. Domingo illustrate this ; and
our own free colored population prove that
they are not fitted for enjoying free government.
God has so ordained it; and although
they may be Christianized, by contact with,
and under the control of, the descendants of
Shera aud Japheth, yet I venture to prophesy
that they never will attain that elevation
of mental culture which will enable them to
set up for themselves an independent, free
government. Natura fivrit prona. If we
consider the miserable condition of the African
in Western Africa, his slavery there, his
idolatry, barbarism, cannibalism and utter
depravity, and turn to look at his happy condition
under his master here, who will not
at once decide that the Northern people,
who are planning and desiring to set free
and send back our negroes to Africa, are
false philanthropists; and that we ire the
true philanthropists, who are not only making
our slaves happy here, but are aiming
to purchase and rescue more, from a miserable
bondage in Africa, by transplanting them
hither into an improved state of servitude?
African slavery is a divine decree.
It will be useful, in this discussion but curious
nod mournful, to take a rapid view ofthe
government aud some of the customs which
prevail in Western Africa; whereby we shall
be able to learn how important it is to the native
African to be brought hither in to contact
with American civilization. The whole of
Western Africa is divided into small kingdoms,
governed by kings who rule over their
people with the unrestrained authority of masters,
exercising the most cruel and unmitigated
despotims. Polygamy is universal with all
classes, and the wife is the slave of her dusky
lord, who has as many wives as he can buy;
: his respectability being great iD proportion to
their number. The parent is allowed to sell
his offspring into slavery; and the price of a
wife is generally some trifle?a few trinkets,
a few yards of cotton cloth, a bottle of whiskey,
or a cow. The rich buy all the wo1
men, and the poor youngmcn are left to sigh
! 1 L ? 1 M 1 I
; ana ourn 111 aesprur witu nopeicss passion, or |
j resort to artifices fop stolen and unlawful grat;
ification, which generally is connived at by
j the husband when known, because his chil:
dren, being slaves, increase his wealth and
power; and with a large number of wives, }
he gladly subsidizes the vigor or wiqis at the
amorous intrigues of love-lorn poverty. Thus I
the land becomes broadcast with shameless j
adultery. I speak from knowledge derived
j from missionaries who have been among
| them for years, and who have found it utteri
ly impossible to exterminate this system of
| abominations. There arc, however, laws in
; Africa against conjugal infidelity, which
j sometimes are enforced. They have a cu|
rious institution in Senegambia, called Mumi
/>n .Titmhn V>v whiph ;in flrrimr roifo nr nnp
. ........
i who has in some way offended her husband,
is punished and disgraced. In a recent publication,
entitled "? Western Africa," a book
written by llcv. Leighton Wilson, a distinguished
Presbyterian missionary, a native
of Sumter, and for more than twenty years
! a faithful laborer in efforts to Christianize the
African in his own laud, we find. atpagcTG,
the following, concerning^Muuibo Jumbo :
" This mysterious personage, so frightful to
the whole race of African matrons, is a strong,
I athletic man, disguised in dry plantain leaves
and bearing a rod in his hand, which he
uses on proper occasions with unsparing severity.
When invoked by an injured husband,
he appears about the outskirts of the
village at dusk, and commences all sorts of
pantomimes. After supper he ventures to the
i town hall, where he commences his antics,
! and every grown person, male or female,
j must be present, or subject themselves to
I the suspicion of having been kept away by
I a guilty conscience. The performance is
kept up till midnight, when Mumbo suddenly
springs with the agility of the tiger on the
offender, and chastises her most soundly, amidst
the shouts and laughter of the multitude,
in which the other women join more
heartily than anybody else; with the view,
no doubt, of raising themselves above the
suspicion of such infidelity."
There is a general belief, throughoutWestern
Africa, in witchcraft, which is a capital
offence, and is punished iu a murderous manner,
by the red-wood ordeal, which is simply
bringing the offender who is charged with
bewitching somebody, before an assembly of
the people, and forcing him to drink a poisonous
decoction of water from the red-wood,
which generally produces death; and his
death is evidence of his guilt. Often this
ordeal is resorted to against the innocent, to
gratify the worst passions in the accuser.?
Should the accused escape death by any
means, the prosecutor must submit to the
same ordeal, which is fortunately some
check to this bloody superstition. Such are
some of the customs which, with indolence,
theft. Ivine and cannibalism, make the na
tive African the most corrupt and degraded
human being on earth ; and missionary labor
has done but little in four hundred years to
Christianize; civilize or reform him ; and never
will effect much while he remains on his
native soil. What is the prospect when after
400 years of Gospel preaching there, they eat
each other, like delicious morsels rolled on
their tongues; when a subject may have a
thousand wives, and a king six thousand, as
Mr. Wilson said of the king of Loarigo;
and when the king of Dehomi has an army
of 5,000 stalwart women, whom he oompels
to guard him and fight for him on the battlefield?
It is recorded by Mr. Wilson, that
in a recent war against the city of Abeokuta,
the Dehoman king would have lost his life,
or been captured, "if it had not been for the
desperate and almost frantic fury with whioh
his Amazons defended his person." These
female warriors, as is the custom with the
men, wear no clothing, no dress, except a
small cotton shawl or napkin, tied round the
waist, falling down and covering little more
than mother Eve's fig leaves. Nearly naked,
without fortifications except the breastworks
which nature has bestowed on them, these
women, with savage ferocity, apparently
without setise of fear, because without the
mental capacity to appreciate danger, have
scarce a thought but how to kill, and though
wild as tigresses, fight with almost the effect
of a Roman Legion?a barbarian wonder!
But these people must and will be Christianized,
because it is the will of (rod; and
He has graciously made the white man instrumental
in bringing thousands of them
from their bondage and barbarism in Africa,
and introducing them here to a mild, humane
servitude, under Christian masters. In the
Minutes of the last South Carolina Conference
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, it
is reported that 200,000 negroes live in the
range of its ministry, and of that number
45,000 are church members?nearly onefourth
of the whole number; that missionary
labor is employed on 330 plantations;
and that 820,000 had been appropriated the
year before, for this good work. In the
language of the Report of the Managers of
Missions, "As Christianity was slow to pen
etrate barbarism, God has brought barbarism
to Christianity, that the Christian slave might
be made happier than an African king."?
And yet the false philanthropy of the North
would deprive our slaves of their happy con
dition and prospects here, to send tbetp back
to Africa.
It is not proposed in re-opening the African
slave trade, to institute anew the system
of kidnapping, once practised, but to establish
a lawful commerce in purchasing forfair
market value in Africa, such slaves as are
held by masters there; and surely no onewill
say that it is wrong to purchase a slave
from a barbarous tyrant in Guinea or Kongo,
to briug him hither, where he will have a
good Christian owner, who will instruct him
and provide for all his wants, and especially
endeavor to illuminate the midnight darkness
of his soul with rays of blissful light.
If we are wrong to do this, we are equally
or more wrong to buy slaves from each other
in America. All that has been said of the
horrors of the middle passage, would be avoided
in a lawful trade, since, by the employment
of steamships, doubtless manned
by abolitionists, negroes may be comfortably
brought in a short time across the Atlantic,
to our shores.
We see that re-opening the African slave
trade is consistent with Christianity and beneficial
to the African ; and now let us consider
the benefits which will result from it to j
the Caucasian race; and especially to the
Southern section of the United States.
It is indispensably necessary to have more
slave labor to develop the agricultural and
other resources of the Southern States, and
to elevate our sections to the highest condition
of which it is capable, in wealth, intelligence
and power. The slaveholdingStates
contain an area of 1,000,000 of square miles, I
or 640,000,000 of acres. Of this vast territory,
ouly one acre in ten has been improved,
(see census of 1^50,) and this improved
land embraces all that has been merely
fenced and used for uncleared pasture.?
! Only 5,000,000 of acres are planted in cotton,
or one acre in 128. In the South-West;
em States, where the best lands lie, only one
j acre in 20 has been improved, and of these
improved lands a large portion is not cleared
or planted. The best lands in the South lie
under the dominion of water, subject to miasma,
and the African race alone can reclaim
them. The white man never will do this
( without the aid of negro slavery. Small as
the proportion of land is that is cultivated,
in the South, the cotton crop is over 3,000,000
of bales in good seasons, and the whole
crops constituting the domestic exports of
i
the South are, iD round numbers, worth
8172,000,000, while those of the Northern
States arc worth only 883,000,000, (see last
Report of U. S. Secretary of the Treasury.)
This shows what we are, and what we might
be, In the South, if our land was under extensive
cultivation, instead of the small portion
now producing crops; and the cultivation
of even one-half would leave forest
land in abundance for all the uses to which
it might be applied and for which it would
be wanted in civilized life. If we wait for
the natural increase of our 4,000,000 of slaves
to supply us with labor to bring our country
to a high state of improvement, we shall wait
in vain. The world will grow hoary with
a.z -ii : j a.la
age; generations win pass away; auu wiu
forests will perish and spring again out of
their dust and ashes, before this desirable
consummation will take place. We owe it
to ourselves and posterity to make progress
in this grand road to national greatness and
individual posterity, while we are on" the
earth and able to work. Then let us have
no delay. If it be said that we may have
too many slaves, and their labor would thus
be unprofitable, I answer that the number to
be introduced from Africa maybe graduated
to the wants of the country, by law, so as to
prevent too great an influx of slaves at one :
time. When new, untaught negroes come,
it will require time to teach them, as well as
time to procure them, and by proper laws the
trade may be regulated for the public good.
We cannot begin this enterprise too soon :
we have no time to spare.
The number of slaves would not be too
great if it was gradually increased to four
times that of the white population of tho
coutn. At present, tnc wnite population
double: that of the slaves, in our section :
8,000,000 of white people, against 4,000,000
of slaves.
Let us take some light from the lamp of
history. In the most enlightened and powerful
nations of antiquity, their slaves greatly
outnumbered the free population. Tho
number of slaves in Athens was thirteen
times that of the free people. In Sparta,
the land of heroes, the birth-place of Leonidas,
whom Thermopylae crowned with immortal
glory, there were 31,000 free citizens
when there were 220,000 helots, degraded
slaves, and 120,000of the intermediate class
not entitled to'political rights. Gibbon says,
that in the time when the Emperor Claudius
exercised the office of censor, he took an account
of the number of the ltoman people,
and concludes by saying that the slaves were !
equal in number to the free people of the I
whole Roman world. Some idea of the
number of slaves in Italy, about the advent
of Christ, may be had from the fact that
Crassns, the triumvir and colleague of Julius
Cmsar, owned 18,000 slaves. All the
Greek and Roman slaves were white, and
some of them highly educated. Blade slaves
were little, if at all, known till the opening
of the slave trade, in Western Africa, about
the year 1450, in the time of Pope Martin
V., who held in bondage the first ten slaves
brought from thence. This large proportion
of slaves in these three celebrated ancient
natious, never gave any uneasiness from dread
of insurrections. The Helots were sometimes
insubordinate, but were easily brought
to order. The existence of slavery was at
the very foundation of Grecian and Roman
. ' mi.- -t _..k: i-.i it. :i
greatness. J.11C slaves cuuiviueu me sun
and practised the mechanic arts, so as to enable
the free citizens to cultivate all the arts
and sciences, both of peace and war, by
which they steadily ascended the steeps of
fame and have left, though a fallen people,
monuments of their greatness, which excite
the wonder of modern times, and which will
secure them imperishable renown.
Some ingenious writer has recently said
that the area of the Mississippi basin is large
enough and rich enough to sustain r population
equal to that of the whole number of
the human race on the globe. I am sure
that, comparing the Southern territory with
that of Ireland and China, a population of
500,000,000 might be sustained in the slaveholding
States, with more comfort than is.
enjoyed in either of those countries. Think
of Ireland having 8,000,000 of people, with
an area not as large as some of our States,
while the whole South, in black and white,
now numbers but about 12,000,000! A
member of Congress lately said, that in one
bend of the Mississippi river there was land
enough to employ all the slaves in Virginia.
This, too, is land which will produce 2000
pounds of seed cotton per acre, and ten bales
may be made per hand.
By supplying the demand for slaves in the i
Western States from Africa, we will stop the !
drain from the Eastern and older States and
thus keep them identified with the new States
in supporting the institution.
By increasing the number of slaves here,
the African slave trade would give additional
strength and stability to the institution of
slavery; and certainly, when the fanatical
spirit of the world is arraying a formidable
opposition to the South, it is the part of wisdom
and duty to fortify ourselves in every
way and as speedily as possible. In the South,
at least one-half of the people are not slaveholders,
because the price of slaves is so
high that the honest poor man cannot buy
them. Let the number be increased so as
to bring down the price, and all the industrious,
aspiring poor people will become slaveowuers,
become identified in feeling and interest
with the institution; and when this is
done, a pillar will be erected under the fabric
of slavery which will render it impregnable
against all the combined powers of abolitionists.
It cannot be disguised, that the
man who is shut out by poverty and the high
price of negroes, from holding and enjoying
this property, now held only by the rich or
fortunate, will not have the same sympathy
with slaveholders which interest would inspire.
Nevertheless, I believe that the patriotic
poor man, though not a slave-owner,
who sees his country's power and glory dependent,
as they are, on the continued existence
of slavery, will arm and fight side by
side with the rich, in its defense. If, there*
fore, his condition and that of the country
may be benefitted by re opening the slave
trade, it is due to him, it is right, und imperatively
demanded by justice and the common
good, that all classes in the South should
unite to institute so desirable a measure of
public policy.
All classes, rich and poor will be benefitted.
If the price of slaves be diminished,
the rich can buy more, and all are slave-buyers.
No one desires to sell, unless compelled
by debt or some other cause to do so: and
if slave labor is increased, land will rise in
price, because there will be greater demand
for it; and this will more than compensate
for any loss in the value of negroes. If cotton
should fall in value, more can be made
with additional and cheaper labor, more lands
brought under cultivation and reclaimed
plantations better improved, better residences
built, and all the comforts and luxuries
of life increased. But it will take so long
a time to make new, untaught Africans valuable
as laborers, that, with the natural increase
of population in the world, and its
known law of outrunning production, it
wonld require a large increase of labor, a
long time, and a great addition to the amount
of cotton produced, to bring down or affect
its price. Besides, there are so many other
channels in which slave labor is employed or
desired, that if there should be a danger of
over-producingcotton, labor might be partially
diverted from its culture. Mankind, if
let alone, will always know bow to regulate
best their own business and interests. Let
us^have the muscular power wherewith to
work, and the almost immense wilderness of
the South will blossom with remunerative
crops. Is it not tantalizing to our people to
know that they have millions of acres of the
richest lauds in the world, and that a cruel
legal restriction prevents them from acquir
ing the labor necessary to till them and to
realize those visions of prosperity which are
floating before their minds? They see how
they can grow rich beyond the dreams of
avarice, but law stands in their way- Is it
the end of law to prevent a people from becoming
prosperous and happy? I have been
taught that laws were intended for the public
good, that is to say, "for the greatest
good of the greatest number." Consider
the numerous demands for slave labor, besides
for the production of cotton, sugar,
breadstuflfs and tobacco, and it will be seen
that a large increase of slave labor is necessary.
Labor is needed for clearing and draining
new and fertile lands; for making railroads
; for manufactures and the mechanic
arts. It is a proposition too well proved,
that no nation can attain the highest degree
of liberty, independence and power, without
the trinity, of agriculture, manufactures and
commerce. Agriculture alone will not make
us entirely independent; in and slave labor
may well be employed in manufactures and
in the preparatory departments of commerce.
A state of war especially illustrates the
necessity for commerce and manufactures.?
Agriculture does not produce caDnon balls,
arms and ammunition ; a ready-made shirt
or pant-aloon never hangs out of a cotton
boll; a war steamer or line-of-bnttle ship
never grows, like a live oak, out of the
ground ; but these things are the results of
commerce and manufactures; and if slave
labor should become redundant in agriculture,
it might nud would bo made a great
blessing to our country when a portion of it
should be diverted into numerous other occupations
in aid of our national protection
and independence.
Let us have no fear of an overflowing population,
either white or black. "Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof." Since the
great Flood, it has been about 5000 years,
and a large portion of the world is yet uninhabited
aud unimproved. Let us go on in
onr course of improvement?"do our duty,
and leave the consequences to God." We
cannot lift the veil which is spread before the
future, but the probability is, that when slavery
shall reclaim our forests, drain our rich
swamps, drive Neptune with his trident into
the ocean, bring under cultivation all that is
desirable in our present wide-extended country,
Caucasian civilization will find then, and
perhaps before then, other fields provided for
its extension and for the employment of African
labor. Toppling and crumbling governments
in the South seem to invoke our
aid, and lands rich in soil and minerals, now
almost desolate, are destined for our possessions.
The Southern people will have Mexico
whenever it is needed; and Cuba, the
beautiful queen of the Gulf, smiling upon us
through her tears, "like gleams of sunshine
'mid renewing storms," beckons us to come
and possess her and enjoy her treasures.?
African laboraloue can make these fair realms
valuable and profitable. With thattheSouth
will grow in wealth, beauty and power;
without it. rude nature will overrun all our
improvements, assert her ancientempire over
a howling wilderness, and our people will be
doomed to a slow, terrapin progress, if not to
a mournful retrogression.
The attempt of the Northern abolitionists
to emancipate, is so ridiculous and and absurd
as scarcely to deserve a notice. The
present plan, as suggested by Elihu Burritt,
is to raise money by contribution throughout
the Union and elsewhere, to buy all the
slaves at 8250 each. The value of 4,000,000
of slaves, at 8500 each?about their
market worth?would be 82,000,000,000,
and at. 8250 each, just half that sum.?
Southern men, even if disposed to sell their
slaves, would not take half-price, to please
crazy abolitionists, and if they could be induced
to do so, fanaticism has not so overcome
tin love of money as to furnish the
means to pay so large a sum. Besides this,
there is no proposal to take the emancipated
negroes away, or colonize them in another
land. This would be indispensable to
us, but would require so much more money
as to make the scheme appear what it is, a
mere vision of distempered fancy. Abolitionism
may feel for the supposed sufferings
of negro slaves, but never feels much in the
pocket to aid them.
The value of slave labor may be seen at a
glance, by comparing the money power of the
South with that of the North. The North,
with double our population, exports less than
half the amout annually which is exported
I by the South, as I have before shown. This
gives the South superiority in national
strength over the North; and in a war of
defence, with slaves to till the soil for the
support of armies in the field and ficete on
the ocean, with a long line of sea-coast, good
harbors, and a wide extent of territory,
which is a natural bulwark, we may regard
ourselves, without boasting, as invincible.?
The large revenue of the South would, in
time of war, enable us to supply all the needful
arms of service, and if men should be
wanting, to hire soldiers from abroad. The
Colonies had, we know, in the Revolution,
as much trouble in fighting the mercenary
Hessians as the native British.
What would the South be now, if slave
labor had never been employed ? Instead
of our hills and valleys teeming with rich
crops, our flourishing cities and towns, our
comfortable residences dotting the whole
land, aud our large yearly incomes, oar
country would now be a desert waste. In- *
stead of exciting the envy of the North and
the respect of other nations, chill penary
would preside over our obscure condition,
and
"Freeze the genial current of the soul,"
while neighboring and foreign grandeur
would look on us "with a disdainful smile."
But the tide of Southern prosperity was
checked by prohibiting, after the year 1808,
the importation of slaves; and now, especially
since the great additions which have
been made to our territory, in the SouthWest,
the necessity for rc-opening the African
slave trade becomes manifest. The independence
of our wealthy slaveholders in
the South will not stifle their patriotism,
throw obstacles in the way of this salutary
measure, and thns prevent the onward rapid
march of their country to her meridian
splendor and power. Let us not be content
with merely doing well; but let our motto
be, Excelsior.
Slavery fortifies in a free people the love
of liberty and devotion to country. Men
who are acoustomed to be masters will not
submit to aggression on tbeir rights, or pale
before the countenance of insolent tyranny.
Slavery is one of the elements constituting
Southern chivalry; and nowhere among the
colonics in the Revolution was the motto of
"Liberty or Death" followed and obeyed with
more sclf-sacrificing enthusiasm than by the
Southern people.
Governor Adams, in his message to our
last Legislature, very well says, among many
good thing, that the increasing price of cotton
will induce its production in the East
Indies and elsewhere, and endanger the monopoly
now enjoyed by the South in its production
; that it is necessary, in order to
support this monoply, to have more slave
labor in the South to supply the growing demand
in the world for the article; that if
free labor is to compete with slave labor in
the South, it'will weaken slavery; that to
strengthen the institution,one slave in qvety,
family should be exempt from levy and sale
for debts hereafter sto be contractedand
that the act of Congress making the slave
trade piracy "is a brand upon us," which
ought to be removed, because, "if the trade
be piracy the slave must be plunder." Governor
Adams deserves great credit for bis
bold and sensible advocacy of re-opening this
trade. Condemned at first by some, be is
destined to enjoy the general plaudits of his
country.
I conclude this branch of the subject by
remarking, what I hinted at before, that
slave labor was auxiliary, if not essential, in
building up Roman power. From a small
beginning, limited to the citv*Rome be- \
came first the mistress of Italy and Sicily, V
and afterwards of the world. The iofroduc- \
tion of slaves was never repressed there : V
the slave trade was always open, and history .
does not inform us that any oomplaint was
ever made in Rome or her extended territory,
of a redundant slave population. Slavery
fostered the arts and sciences by affording
the free citizens leisure for their pursuit,
improved the spirit of the people, brought
money into the treasury, and erected those
splendid models of architecture which have
been unrivalled to this day. Rome fell by
the corruption of berpeople, which was pulling
her down, about the coming of Christ
on earth. She fell from her greatness when
she lost her respect for virtue and surrendered
to licentiousness and enervating luxury.
"Self-abasement pared the way
To villain bonds and despots' s^ay."
The re-openit)g of the slave trade is practicable.
The Constitution of the United
States does not forbid it, but simply provides
that it should not he prohibited by
Congress, prior to 1808. After that period,
Congress passed a law making it piracy to
engage in this trade. Congress can repeal
this law, by a bare majority, and re-open the
slave trade, with such regulations and restrictions
as the interest of the South ..may dictate.
It is the true interest of the North to
create this new order of things becaus, among
other investments, the North has
8600,000,000 invested in manufactures,
and would be benefitted by increased sup
plies of cotton and diminished prices of the
article. The whole manufacturing world
would be benefitted in the same way. In
time of peace, plenty and ordinary health,
population doubles in 20 years. Before we
can begin to increase the supply of cotton,
the depend will probably be so great 88 to
stop, to a considerable extent, the manufac*
tureof it; and the capital that would be
thus employed will find other channels, jerj
much to our injury.
I believe that if we are true to ourselves
iu pressing this measure before Congress*
that the slave trade will be re-opened. If
we put the issue to the North, of dissolving
the Union if the slave trade is not re-opened
by Congress, we will suoeeeed ,* becabse the
North loves the Union more than It hattt
t ... - ?