THE AMERICAN SLAVE QUESTION.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 31, 12 April 1862, Page 8

THE AMERICAN SLAVE QUESTION.

[From the Examiner, January 4. ] As the illusions with regard to the existence of a "Union sentiment" in the South (so long and fondly cherished by the Conservatives of the North ) are gradually dispelled, the desire becomes stronger to test the reality of that feeling of devotion to their masters which has been 10 often declared, by pro-slavery writers, to be the ruling passion of the negro heart. It has been for 6ome time well known that Mr Lincoln's Cabinet is divided on the question of rebel property, and we now hear from Washington that Mr Trumbull, of Illinois, has introduced a bill into the Senate to authorise the confiscation and subsequent liberation of the slaves of Secessionists. It being evidently impossible to distinguish in practice between the "chattels" of one planter and another, or to decide upon the claims to compensation founded on the alleged " loyalty " ot a few individuals, this measure in reality foreshadows a war of total and unconditional Abolition. Should it leceife the votes of a majority in Congress, it is natural to suppose that the arming of the negroes would follow almost immediately, and the more sincere and enthusiastic advocate of human freedom must coutemplate with horror the probable results of such an event. Although there can be no doubt that a large proportion of the coloured inhabitants of the South are so deeply sunk in mental and mrral darkness as to be singularly contented with their lot, still the contagion of example, and the excitement produced by the new and only half-understood cry of Liberty, might tempt even the most humanely treated and faithful slaves to indulge in a wild and bloody saturnalia of plunder and outrage. It is scarcely possible to believe that the Government of the United States can be cruel aud reckless enough to leek the destruction of its enemies by such means, especially when it is recollected how earnestly the idea of interfering with the domestic institution was repudiated six months .as?Q. The more extreme politicians of the North art now, perhaps, too intensely exasperated by the bad success which has hitherto attended the operations of the Federal army to reflect with calmness on the unavoidable cou■equences of forcible emancipation, or to decide as to what steps must be taken in the future in order that the country may recover from the prostration of industry and the annihilation of wealth caused by servile rebellion. The disgraceful scheme of permanently blockading the harbours of Charleston and Savannah by means of sunken ships has already proved to the world that the President aud his advilera consider themselves justified in inflicting ruin where they cannot hope to find willing obedience, and they may also be of opinion th.at the integrity of the Republic is worth preserving, even at the expense of the desolation and partial depopulation of a portion of its territory. Let us picture to ourselves what would follow the verification of the most sanguine predictions of those who loudly declare that the independence of the South will never be recognised by the Federal authorities, let us imagine the star-spangled banner everywhere triumphant, the seceded States bleeding and fettered, humbly craving forgiveness and readmission upon equal terms into the Union, the fire-eating Congress-men ( such of them, at least, as remain alive ) transformed into sadder and wiser men by the experience of a winter sojourn at Nashville, retracing their steps like repentant prodigals to Washington. A task even more stupendous than that of crushing secession would lie before the victorious Government of the United States. To restore law and order in the regions south of the Potomac and the Ohio, it would be necessary at once to establish a system of military posts and garrisons on the most extensive scale, and it would probably be found a matter of considerable difficulty to prevent the white population from carrying on a desultory warfare with the lately emancipated negroes. It is not to be expected, of course, that the latter would settle down quietly to work for many years to come, so that exports of cotton and sugar Would cease from the ports of the South for an indefinite period. It would be utterly impossible to remove to Liberia or to Hayti, according to the suggestion of some persons, a body of nearly four millions of American-Africans, the majority of whom feel a strong attachment for the land of their birth, and entertain not the slightest desire to seek the unknown shores of the distant continent from whence their fathers came. Florida has been mentioned as £ spot which might be conveniently given up to the liberated slaves on account of its almost isolated position, and the scantiness of its white population. To drive them thither, however, would be a work of no small difficulty, and if the only result of emancipation were to be the establishment in the swamps and forests of the South-east of a semi-barbarous and ungovernable colony, philanthropists would have but little reason to rejoice over the event. From the border States, indeed, the negro would naturally retire should the institution which holds him there be abolished, and the free white labourers of the North would find a field promising a rich reward to his exertions in the temperate and hilly regions which include at least one half of Secessia. But the children of the dark race have nothing to fear from such competition in the land of the cotton-plant and the sugar-cane, the fierce sun and the deadly malaria of the farther South having inexorably decreed that they alone shall till the soil on the coast of the Mexican Gulf. The successful cultivation of cotton by the German colonists Of Texas, where the thriving settlement of New Braunfels lies on the same parallel of latitude as the mouth of the Mississippi, has been instanced as a proof that the inability of the white race to endme exposure and fatigue in a semi-tropical climate has been to some extent exaggerated. The dry and open uplands of Texas, however, enjoy a temperature considerably modified by their elevation above sea-level, while the strip of low alluvial country extending along the shore is as hot and unhealthy as the neighbouring state of Louisiana. Western Tennessee, also, where the fertile cotton fields are scarcely higher thtn' the waters of the great river, and the whole of the States of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, including, alto- ' gether, an area of about seven times the extent j of England and Wales, must inevitably return lo the condition of a wilderness peopled by

hordes of indolent savages, should a forced outbreak of the slaves take place, accompanied as it would be by deeds of violence and rapine. We do notregard the production of wealth as the chief end of mankind, or as an object the attainment of which justifies in any degree the permanent degradation of men. For the sake of the negroes themselves, however, we hope that freedom may not be so granted to them as that they shall be plunged into yet lower depths o\ degradation by the offer of freedom as blood-money for the wreaking of revenge sought by the white man upon his brother.

The Amebican Blockade.— The blockade is illegal and invalid, and we are quite entitled to disregard it if we please. Shall we do bo ? Would it be right, wise, and politic to do so ? France, we know, would do so willingly. The decision practically rests with England ; and the responsibility of that decision is a weighty one. We think our decision ought to be in the negative, and we hope to carry our readers along with U9 in our reasons. — Economist. A Southebn Bid. — It is understood, in that indirect but accurate way in which great facts first get abroad, that the Confederacy have offered England and France a price for active support. It is nothing less than a treaty securing free trade, in its broadest sense, for fifty years, the complete suppression of the ! import of slaves, and the emancipation of every negro born after the date of the signature of the treaty. In return, they ask, first, the recognition of their independence ; and, secondly, such an investigation into the facts of the blockade as must, in their judgment, lead to its disavowal. — Spectator. It is remarkable (says the Athenaum) that while the cotton trade with the Southern States ot America is nearly at an end, another trade, which bids fair to be of equal importance, is rapidly springing up in the Northern States and in Canada. All accounts concur in stating that the oil springs in Pennsylvania and in Canada are yielding petroleum with continually increasing abundance. Montreal is now lighted by ga9 distilled from this mineral oil, and so rapidly is it usurping the place of coal gas, that instead of England exporting coal to America to manufacture gas, it is probable that we shall import petroleum largely to be distilled into gas. There are already twenty thousand barrels of petroleum on their way to England.