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will have to swear to maintain the Union of the States , and will be compelled to keep his bath . Mr . Edge then demands hovr , with civil war impending , with the Southern ports perhaps blockaded , and all communication - \ yith the North destroyed , ^—how shall we in England obtain our cotton ? The Northern States , which are fast driving matters to this issue , are , however , not Abolitionists- ^ -not exactly Abolitionists ; they merely insist on the non-extension of slavery ; they keep within the bounds of the American Constitution . " Slavery is a Statenot a Federal , institution , and it must
, therefore be understood that slavery can only be abolished by the Legislature of the State where it exists . " They leave , therefore , ° to the Slave States themselves the privilege of delivering themselves from the curse to which they object ; but they ' ¦ will not permit it to spread beyond its present limits . Citizens of slave States , however , who are for the abolition of slavery , indulge in bolder ideas and language . One of these , Mr . Hinton Rowan Helper , thus speaks of " the impending crisis , " in a pamphlet so entitled , and thus denounces the slave-holding oligarchy .
" Frown , sirs , fret , foam , ¦ prepare your weapons , threat , strike , shoot , stab , bring on civil war , dissolve the Union , nay , annihilate the solar system if y ou will , — -rdo all this , more , less , better , worse , anything—do what you will , sirs , you can neither foil nor intimidate xis ; our purpose is as firmly fixed as the eternal pillars of heaven ; we have determined to abolish slavery , and , so help us God , abolish it we will . " It is , therefore , in the midst of the slave States themselves that the fullest response might be expected to the denunciations against the system of Gerritt Sniith , Frederick Douglass , and Mrs . Stowe . Slavery in these States : is , unfortunately , a part of the inheritance they derived from the mother country . "Virginia and North Carolina were colonised by the cavaliers , men who answered the psalms of the Puritans by the songs of the Stuart Court . _ Feudal lords or retainers in their forsaken
country , they naturally sought to form aiound them a similar civiHzatipq , in their adopted home . The English " estate " emigrated , and became the American " plantation . " Serfs were changed for negro slaves . The same holds _ good with reference to Maryland , settled by Irish Catholics , and the Huguencst colony of South Carolina , which / grew out of-a strictly feudal element . Georgia , colonised at a later period than the above , tinder the ( auspices . of General Qglethorpe , adopted similar usages to Virginia and the Garplinas , on the ground that as the agricultural productions of their settlement were the same , so must their mode of cultivation be . " Seeing , " says Mr . Edge , " no other exotise for slave-holding , it was a plausible defence of their iniquity , to assert that agricultural operations coxua ~ oTtly ^ btrn ? aTrigd cm in Southern--elimes-by
African labour , and that as the negro was incapable of taking care of himself , his master should do so by making him his ohattle . The world keeps inoving , and so do the Southern States of the American / Union , though it be , like a crab , backwards . Slavery ,, which they originally defended , on the ground of their own self-interest , they now advocate on holy and Christian ¦ principles , teaching' a newer gospel than that delivered to the saints , ' and declaiming that by its means * the children of Ham will be brought into the fold of Christ . ' And there are thousands of misguided men in the South who honestly believe they are doing God service in thus acting . Truly , the human heart is the devil ' s lawyer . "
And is it , then , our aristocracy that we perceive reflected in t he ¦¦ ' * peculiar institution " of these Southern States ? Yesin its last distorted , . exaggerated form—ay , and in its essential elements . Let us , then , on this account investigate the evil thing more closely . It would appear , says Mr . Edge significantly j " that an all-wise Providence had set apart the American Continent for the arena in which the principles of right and might , of slavery and freedom , should battle out their claims on their own merits . " One sign of the evil , is the want of prosperity that attends it . The Southern States have declined , while the Northern have advanced in population , wealth , and powei \ The types of either ore Virginia and New York . In 1790 , Virginia had d 6 nEle ~" tlf ^^ she had less than half . "At the taking of the last census , the value of real and personal property in Virginia , including 'negroes , was 891 , 046 , 438 dols . ; that of New York , exclusive of any monetary valuation of human beings , was 1 , 080 , 809 , 210 dols . In August , 1856 , the real and personal estate assesseel in the city of New York amounted in valuation to 511 , 740 , 491 dols ., showing that New York city alono is worth far more than the whole State of Virginia . " The slavery of these States operates as an insurmountable
Some of the Southern States are happily fast losing their pro-slavery character ; such , for instance , as Delaware , Kentucky , Maryland , and Missouri , from their contiguity to the free States- The proj > ortion of slaves in Delaware and Maryland is yearly diminishing , while ' the number of free negroes is increasing , and the time is not far distant when these two States will abolish human servitude . Missouri , in the far West , is approaching the result in a still more rapid manner ; it is expected that five years hence she will be a free State . Mr . Edge enters largely into the statistics of the question , and the book before us contains numerous and extensive tables on every point . In reference to their educational facilities and intellectual advancement , the free States ,
obstacle to immigration . The position in them openly taken , that "labour is a badge of servitude , " naturally deters the intending emigrant . He is made quickly to discover that the slave districts offer no home to him . He is regarded as on a nwmlpar with the slave , being obliged to work to eat , and is also undersold by the latter . Slaves , instructed in all branches of trade , are let out as chattels oy their masters , at comparatively nominal p rices ; far too moderate for the poor white man to feed , clothe , and lodge his family upon . Under these discouragements , immigration at lcng-tlinltogether ceases . Louisiana is the only slave State that increases its populations by foreign immigrants , the nationalities being mostly French , Spanishand the Southern races generally .
are beyond all comparison superior to the slave States . The former say of the latter , " the South only produces niggers and cotton . " In fact , the well-to-do Southern community send their children to the North to be educated ; hence the young men return home with consciences unsettled as to the sound policy and the justice of slave-holding . Even thus it is that Providence secures the growth of freedom . All the men of literature ^ science , and the arts , belong to the North . The South is barren of these and other good fruits . But it
has been politiealiyniore active , while the North has attended more to commerce ; hence the temporary domination of the former—hut this can moTlonger continue , now that the North is aliveto the importanee ' of the contest . It is also grateftttly remembered that " nowhere in the constitution pf the United States slavery recognised , or even referred to . " The fraTners-of it having studiously avoided any reference . to the evil , lest they might be considered to have in some mariner indorsed it . However , by the admission of Missouri into the Union , a fatal compromise was initiated . Thenceforward there were two parties only in the country— -slavery extensionists , and slavery prohibitionists . The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 has been considered the _ trJ 3 iTnpiT .. hf _ t . TVn pnrt . y of thp .. South . To them are also due the
continual attempts made on the independence of neighbouring States , Mr . Buchanan lias been sustained iii power , because he stood pledged to the slave-oligarchy to do his utmost to annex Cuba to the Confederation . Oitr author gives a long account of the Kansas troubles , and the noble battle maintained to make it a free State . We cau only deal with the results , All these significant struggles ended in 1858 in the defeat of the pro-slavery party . And now that the Republicans are likely to get into office , such defeat may be expected to be followed by many others .
Wo near the conclusion of our argument . Next November , it is stated , the election of an anti-slavery extension President is sure to take place ; and tho annihilation of southern terrorism is the natural result , including the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act , the confining of slavery within its present limits , and the destruction of filibusterism , annexatipnising , and tho secret carrying on of the slave trade . The Southern States forbode the result , and are avowedly preparing to resist . Should the projected rebellion ensue , the North , we are told , will not hesitate a moment . Hundreds ol thousands of bayonets will be poured into Virginia , Georgia and' the Carolines . " To question the result would be , " says Mr . st
Edgp , "to doubt in God and civilization . " England munecessarily be seriously affected by this state of American affairs . The cotton supply from America must be diminished—may ccascraltogetherr —It-becomesj therefore ,- € xpedient-. that . _ wii should direct attention to India , Natal , and bur West Indian and other colonies . Many of these are suited for tho cultivation of cotton . Tho slave States are driving from their confines thousands of freed coloured men . To these we should offer an asylum in Jamaica and other colonies . With the additional labour of these woll-tricd , industrious , and , eminently serviceable men , wo may very soon cultivate our own cotton . In another respect , too , we shall be benefited by the impending change , We need no longer to keep up expen-
Untitled Article
702 The Saturday Aoialyst and ' Leader . [ Attg . 4 , 1860 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 4, 1860, page 702, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2359/page/6/
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