States of North America, and pray that they may not diverge from the paths which would lead them to permanent greatness and prosperity?
It seems incredible that we of this generation should live to see so important an event as a disruption of the great Confederation. By the last advices from the States we are informed that there is a general idea throughout the Union that at the last moment the North will give way, and consent to receive conditions from the South. Such a result, although perhaps it would afford a momentary solution of the difficulty, would, in the long run, prove the direst calamity both to the States and to the world. It would mean nothing less than the extension, at a period more or less remote, of the system of slavery over the larger portion of the North American continent—over Mexico and Central America—and probably over Cuba, and certain others of the Antilles. The Southerners mean nothing more nor less than that this large and fertile section of the globe should be cultivated by enforced negro labour for the benefit of white masters. Is this the best arrangement which can be made? We are bound to admit that in the present condition of human labour, the cultivation of cotton, sugar, and tobacco, and perhaps, coffee, is mainly performed by the negro. They tell us that the constitution of the white man is incapable of continued toil under the burning sun of the tropics, and in the unwholesome swamps where the cotton plant is grown. They add that experience has shown that the negro will not cultivate the earth in obedience to the same impulses which drive the white man to his daily toil. He is an inferior animal—a half-way something between the white man and the horse; he must be put in harness and driven along the road, or he will not perform that daily amount of work which the white man’s Providence, and the white man’s system of Political Economy tell us is required of all human beings, as the condition of their existence.
Now, we are certainly not of those who would advocate the doctrine that the extinction of Slavery is to be purchased at such a price as would be involved in the confiscation of the property of the Southern planters—which, for the matter of that, would carry with it confiscation to our own Manchester magnates as well. But the doctrine, if carried into effect, would do something more than this—it would inflict sudden and enormous misery upon the slaves themselves. The very commonest suggestions of Justice, of Prudence, of Humanity, forbid such a conclusion. The question rather is, whether at this critical period of the world’s history, and looking forward, as we are bound to do, to the advantage of those who are to come after us, we are doing the wisest thing in entrusting the cultivation of the great staples named to the hands of the negro? We may now adopt one of two courses. We may work down to the conclusion that in a generation or two the culture of cotton, sugar, &c., is to be carried out by white labour aided by machinery, and availing itself of the improvements in mechanical and agricultural science. If this be not well, then we must look forward to negro labour as our sole resource, and to an indefinite increase in its amount, for certainly the demand for the great tropical staples is annually on the increase. In half a century, if the same rate of progress is maintained, it will be something very enormous.
If the Northern view were to prevail in this dispute which is now dividing the Disunited, rather than the United States—at least the rational Northern view, not the view of the extreme zealots and fanatics, slavery would be confined within its actual limits, and within them it would be suffered to die out in a few generations. On the Southern suggestion, slavery is to be indefinitely extended, and to become the very basis upon which the New Southern Confederation—to be formed by the secession of the planting States and territories—is to repose. Let this be carried out, and in a few generations what will be the numerical amount of the slave population?—what its proportion to the whites? As matters stand at present in the United States, it must not be forgotten that the Northern States have always offered a most important guarantee to the Southern in case of a servile war, or any disturbance of that kind. Whatever the views of the Northerns might have been upon the subject of slavery, there is no doubt that they would have marched as a man to the defence of their Southern brethren in case of a rising amongst the negroes. But let the Southern idea be carried out, and before long the whites will stand amongst the negroes scarcely as thousands amongst millions. The negro population will be enormous—the white population, as fortunes become more and more concentrated into a few hands, will proportionably decrease. To be sure we hold British India upon such terms; but, commercially speaking, that is not the most profitable speculation we have taken in hand. It may be added that, were we to attempt to govern India in such a spirit, one of two results would surely follow,—our expulsion within the next twenty years, or the bankruptcy of the mother-country.
Every person who has made himself practically familiar with the planting system as it actually exists in the southern states has told us that one of the great blots upon it is, that white and black labour cannot be brought to bear upon the soil within the same district. Agricultural industry, the black man’s merit, is therefore the white man’s reproach. To take a turn at the sugar-canes or the cotton-plants is to be degraded to the negro’s level. This is a great danger, for it shuts out all hope of a modification of the system by the introduction of white labour upon any considerable scale. It should also be considered that the negro is not an apt workman where machinery is used. You can supplement the powers of the white man—the thews and sinews of the black man are all that can be called into action. If, as the advocates of slavery say, the negro is an inferior animal, why should we be at such pains to perpetuate an inferior race? Why not machinery of iron instead of negro muscle? If, on the other hand, the negro is not an inferior animal—although one of a branch of the human race which is not gifted with faculties very susceptible of development—what right have we to keep him in slavery?
