Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Part 20

IMPORTANT DECISIONS.

Since the volume was in type, the Supreme Court of Ohio has made a decision of great importance to the free colored people. We copy from the _Law Journal_, December, 1859:

"NEGROES AND THE COMMON SCHOOLS.

"The Supreme Court of Ohio, on Tuesday, on a question before them involving the right of _colored_ children to be admitted into the Common Schools of the State, decided that the law of the State interfered with no right of colored children on the subject, and that they were not, therefore, ent.i.tled of _right_ to the admission demanded. The following is the reported statement of the case:

"'Enos Van Camp _vs._ Board of Equalization of incorporated village of Logan, Hocking County, Ohio. Error to District Court of Hocking County.

"'Peck J. held:

"'1. That the statute of March 14, 1853, 'to provide for the reorganization, supervision, and maintenance of Common Schools, is a law of _cla.s.sification_ and not of _exclusion_, providing for the education of _all_ youths within the prescribed ages, and that the words 'white'

and 'colored,' as used in said act, are used in their popular and ordinary signification.

"'2. That children of three-eighths African and five-eighths white blood, but who are distinctly colored, and generally treated and regarded as colored children by the community where they reside, are not, _as of right_, ent.i.tled to admission into the Common Schools, set apart under said act, for the instruction of white youths.

"'Brinkherhoff, C. J., and Sutliff, J., dissented.'"

(From the Cincinnati Gazette.)

Ma.s.sACHUSETTS BLACK MILITIA.

Last Wednesday a bill pa.s.sed by the Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature authorizing colored persons to join military organizations, was vetoed by Gov. Banks, on the ground that he believed the chapter in the bill relating to the militia, in which the word "white" was stricken out, to be unconst.i.tutional. In this opinion he is sustained by the Supreme Court and by the Attorney General.

The matter was discussed in the House at some length, and the veto sustained by a vote of 146 to 6.

A new chapter was then introduced on leave, and it being precisely the same as the other, except that the word "white" was restored, it pa.s.sed the House with but one negative vote.

Under a suspension of the rules the new bill was then sent to the Senate, where, after debate, it was pa.s.sed by a vote of 11 to 15.

The Governor signed the new bill, and the Legislature adjourned _sine die_.

SOUTH-SIDE VIEWS.

REV. Dr. Fuller, of Baltimore, has written a long letter to Hon. Edward Everett, in regard to the present state of things as regards slavery. We subjoin two or three specimens:--_Cincinnati Gazette._

"In June, 1845, there a.s.sembled in Charleston a body of men, representing almost all the wisdom and wealth of South Carolina. There were present, also, delegates from Georgia, and I believe from other States. It was a meeting of the a.s.sociation for the improvement, moral and religious, of the slave population. The venerable Judge Huger presided. Having been appointed to address that large and n.o.ble audience, I did not hesitate to speak my whole mind: appealing to masters to imitate the Antonines and other magnanimous Roman Emperors, to become the guardians of their slaves, to have laws enacted protecting them in their relations as husbands and wives and parents; to recognize the rights which the Gospel a.s.serts for servants as well as masters. In a word, I pressed upon them the solemn obligations which their power over these human beings imposed upon them--obligations only the more sacred, because their power was so irresponsible.

"That august a.s.sembly not only honored me with their attention, but expressed their approval, the presiding officer concurring most emphatically in the views submitted.

"I need scarcely tell you that no such address would be regarded as wise or prudent at this time. It is not that masters are less engaged in seeking to promote the moral and religious well-being of their servants; but measures which once could have been adopted most beneficially would now only expose master and servant to the baneful influence of fanatical intermeddling.

"If any thing is certain, it is that the Gospel does not recognise hatred, abuse, violence and blood as the means by which good is to be done. The Gospel is a system of love. It a.s.sails no established social relations, but it infuses love into the hearts of those who are bound together, and thus unites them in affection."

Again he says:

"I think I speak accurately when I say, that hitherto every sacrifice for the emanc.i.p.ation of slaves has been made by Southern men; and many hundred thousand dollars have been expended in such liberations. The North has wasted large sums for abolition books and lectures; for addresses calculated to inflame the imaginations of women and children, and to mislead mult.i.tudes of men--most excellent and pious--but utterly ignorant as to the condition of things at the South. We now find, indeed, that money has been contributed even for the purchase of deadly weapons to be employed against the South, and to enlist the most ferocious pa.s.sions in secret crusades, compared with which an open invasion by foreign enemies would be a blessing. I believe, however, that not one cent has yet been given to set on foot--or even encourage when proposed--any plausible enterprise for the benefit of the slave."

"I do now believe that the guardianship of a kind master is at this time a great blessing to the African. If emanc.i.p.ation is ever to take place, it will be gradually, and under the mild, but resistless influence of the Gospel. Whether slavery be an evil or not, we at the South did not bring these Africans here--we protested against their introduction. The true friend of the African is at the South, and thousands of hearts there are seeking to know what can be done for the race. There must be some limits to human responsibility, and a man in New England has no more right to interfere with the inst.i.tutions of Virginia, than he has to interfere with those of England or France. All such interference will be repelled by the master, but it will prove injurious to the slave. Dr. Channing was regarded as a leading abolitionist in his day, but could that n.o.ble man now rise up, he would stand aghast at the madness which is rife everywhere on this subject. 'One great principle, which we should lay down as immovably true, is, that if a good work cannot be carried on by the calm, self-controlled, benevolent spirit of Christianity, then the time for doing it has not yet come.' Such was his language, when opposing slavery. Were he now living, the delirious spirit of the day would denounce him, as it denounced Mr. Webster, and now denounces you and every true patriot. Nay, even Mr. Beecher is abused as not truculent enough.

"Jesus saw slavery all around him. Did he seek to employ force? He said 'All power in heaven and earth is given unto me, therefore, go teach, go preach the Gospel.'"

COLORED PEOPLE EMIGRATING FROM LOUISIANA TO HAYTI.

The _New Orleans Picayune_ notices that a vessel cleared from that port on the previous day, having on board eighty-one free colored persons, emigrating to Hayti. The _Picayune_ says:

"These people are all from the Opelousas parishes, and all cultivators--well versed in farming, and in all the mechanical arts connected with a farm. Among them are brickmakers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, etc. Some of them are proficient weavers, who have long been employed making the stuff called Attakapas cottonade, so favorably known in the market. They take along with them the necessary machinery for that trade, and all sorts of agricultural and mechanical implements.

"These eighty-one persons--twenty-four adults and fifty-seven children and youths--compose fourteen families, or rather households, for they are all related, and the eighty-one may be called one family. They are all in easy circ.u.mstances, some even rich, one family being worth as much as $50,000. They were all land owners in this State, and have sold out their property with the intention of investing their capital in Hayti."--

_Cincinnati Commercial_, January, 1860.

THE COOLIE TRAFFIC.

It may be well to put upon record one of those extreme cases of hardship and cruelty which necessarily accompany the transportation of laborers to the West Indies, whether under the name of the slave trade, or coolie immigration. The China correspondent of the _New York Journal of Commerce_, of a recent date, says: The Flora Temple, an English vessel, had made all arrangements to secure a full cargo of coolies. They were cheated, inveigled, or stolen, and either taken directly to the ship or else confined in the barrac.o.o.ns in Macao till the ship was ready to sail for Havanna--the crew numbering fifty, and the coolies eight hundred and fifty. The vessel sailed October 8, 1859, when the coolies soon learned their destiny, and resolved to avert it at all hazards. On the morning of the 11th, without weapons of any kind, they rushed upon the guard and killed him. The noise brought the captain and his brother on deck, fully armed with revolvers, who by rapid firing and resolutely pressing forward, drove the miserable wretches below; where, without light and air, they were locked and barred like felons, in a s.p.a.ce too limited to permit their living during the long voyage before them. Think of eight hundred and fifty human beings all full grown men, pressed into this contracted, rayless, airless dungeon, in which they were to be deported from China to Havana, all the long way over the China sea, the Indian ocean, and the Atlantic!

On the 14th, the vessel struck upon an unknown reef, a gale of wind in the meantime blowing, and the sea running high. Every effort was made to save the ship by the officers and crew; the poor coolies, battened down beneath the decks, being allowed no chance to aid in saving the ship or themselves. Although the yards were "braced around" and the ship "hove aback," she struck first slightly, and then soon after several times with a tremendous crash, the breakers running alongside very high.

Pieces of her timbers and planking floated up on her port side, and after some more heavy thumps she remained apparently immovable. The water rapidly increased in the hold till it reached the "between-decks,"

where the eight hundred and fifty coolies were confined.

While this was going on, indeed, almost immediately after the ship first struck, the officers and crew very naturally became afraid of the coolies for the treatment they had received, and the captain ordered the boats to be lowered, not to save the coolies in whole or in part, but to preserve himself and crew. These boats, even under favorable circ.u.mstances, were not more than sufficient for the officers and crew, showing that no provision had been made for the poor coolies in case of disaster. The boats pa.s.sed safely through the breakers, leaving the ship almost without motion, all her masts standing, her back broken, and the sea making a clear break over her starboard and quarter.

When the boats left the ship, and steered away, without making an effort to save the eight hundred and fifty coolies, or allowing them to do any thing themselves, with their last look toward the ship they saw that the coolies had escaped from their prison through doors which the concussion had made for them, and stood cl.u.s.tering together, helpless and despairing, upon the decks, and gazing upon the abyss which was opening its jaws to receive them. My friend a.s.sures me that he knows these poor creatures were completely imprisoned all the night these terrible occurences were going on, the hatches being "battened down," and made as secure as a jail door under lock and bars.

The ship was three hundred miles from land when it struck, and after fourteen days of toil and struggle, one of the boats only succeeded in reaching Towron, in Cochin-China. The three other boats were never heard of. Here the French fleet was lying; and the admiral at once sent one of his vessels to the fatal scene of the disaster, where some of the wreck was to be seen; but not a _single coolie_! Every one of the _eight hundred and fifty_ had perished.