in Georgia. A late number of the Memphis Avalanche, a southern newspaper, has the following:

"Three of the six native Africans brought here a few days since, were sold yesterday at the mart of Mr. West, and brought respectively, $750, $740, and $515. The latter sum was paid for a boy about fifteen years old, who seemed to possess more intelligence than any of the others. These negroes are a part of the cargo of the yacht Wanderer, landed some months since."

According to the most recent information, cargoes of slaves are now frequently being landed along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans papers announce the sailing of vessels for Africa, and contain accounts of the latest arrivals of Congo negroes. Advertisements offer three hundred dollars. a head for every thousand negroes from Africa landed on the southern coast of the United States. An eminent and long tried missionary of the American Board affirms that there cannot be less than one hundred American vessels now on the African coast waiting to be freighted with slaves, and that at least sixty or seventy of these are destined for the American shores. Other missionaries now on the western coast of Africa write to their friends in this country that the slave trade there has greatly increased during the last twelve months. Rev. Messrs. Bushnell and Walker of the Gaboon mission agree in the statement that all the missionaries on the coast of Africa from the whole Christian world are not equal in number to the slave ships from the port of New York alone that yearly visit that coast for slaves. One city furnishes more slave ships for Africa than all Christendom does missionaries! These men say that they have seen and conversed with citizens of the United States in the Gaboon country who openly stated that their business there was to prosecute the slave trade.

But the state of public sentiment at the south is still more ominous of evil than all the facts and testimonies concerning the present existence of the slave traffic between Africa and the United States. This species of commerce is at the present moment, and has been for months, gaining favor at the south. Many of the most enthusiastic and energetic men and politi

cians there are its friends. Many of these intend to secure the full resumption of the slave trade, either by the acquiescence of our country in the violation of the laws against it, or by the abolition of those laws. It is to be made, and is now made, a political question at the South. Candidates for high offices are to be tested as to their slave orthodoxy on this subject. They must in some way favor this commerce, now deemed so essential to the highest prosperity of a large part of the Southern states, or receive the opposition of the most determined and fearless politicians of the whole South. There is no probability that they would long be satisfied with the quiet permission to prosecute the trade while a statute existed against them. Why should not those who have a Dred Scott decision obtain also the voice of the Supreme Court of the United States pronouncing the prohibition of the slave trade by our national laws unconstitutional? Our readers are

aware that there is now in full operation at the South an "African Labor-supply Association," of which the Hon. J. B. D. De Bow is president. Mr. DeBow openly declares that one object of the Association is to effect, at the earliest possible moment, the abolition of the national laws prohibiting the slave trade.

The Hon. W. L. Yancey, writing for the press from Montgomery, Alabama, after some introductory remarks, says:

"Further reflection has but confirmed me in the opinion then expressed, that the Federal laws prohibiting the African slave trade, and punishing it as piracy, are unconstitutional, and are at war with the fundamental policy of the South, and, therefore, ought to be repealed.

"I am further satisfied that the agitation of this question is beneficial. It has already served to develop (not to create) much unsoundness in our midst upon the question of slavery; and one of the advantages of discussion would be to correct these erroneous views, and to warn our people of those among us who are radically unsound upon the principles which underlie that institution. It is wisdom to ascertain wherein we are weak, that we may fortify our position upon that point, and use extra vigilance.

"Until within the last twenty-five or thirty years, there had prevailed an unbroken calm in the South upon the moral aspect of the slavery question. Taking its rise in the wild and reckless radicalism of the Red Republican French school, the opinion had rooted itself in Virginia, and thence had spread over the whole South-and was taught in its religion-that slavery was morally wrong, was

founded in kidnapping, and conducted in cruelty; and it was defended solely upon the ground that it was impracticable to get rid of it. It was in the midst of this unhealthy state of the public mind that the Federal laws, declaring the African slave trade to be piracy, were enacted.

"For one, I am unwilling to see continued on the statute book the semiabolition laws-but desire to see the subject of slavery taken from the grasp of the General Government-and that Government only be allowed to act upon it to protect it.

"Whether the African slave-trade shall be carried on should not depend on that Government, but upon the will of each slave-holding state. To that tribunal alone should the question be submitted: and by the decision of that tribunal alone should the Southern people abide."

Notice the distinct avowal that the "Federal laws prohibiting the African slave trade are unconstitutional," "at war with the fundamental policy of the South;" "that the subject of slavery and the slave trade should be taken from the grasp of the General Government-the Government be allowed only to protect it," and that "the slave trade should depend solely on the will of each slave-holding state."

The Hon. Jefferson Davis, the most polished, able, and influential man at the South, in his late address at Jackson, Miss., uttered the following: "If considerations of public safety or interest warranted the termination of the [slave] trade, they could not justify the Government in branding as infamous the source from which the chief part of our laboring population was derived. It is this feature of the law which makes it offensive to us, and stimulates us to strive for its repeal." He is sensitive under the existence of our treaty with Great Britain, by which we are obligated to keep a squadron on the African coast for the suppression of the slave trade. Relative to this he says: "My friend, Senator Clay of Alabama, (his services entitle him to the friendship of the South,) as Chairman of the Committee of Commerce, instituted, at the last session of Congress, an inquiry into the facts connected with the maintenance of our squadron on the coast of Africa, and I hope his energy and ability may lead to the amendment of a treaty which has been productive only of evil." Who does not see that when that squadron is with

drawn all Federal laws against the African slave trade are abrogated or dead! Mr. Davis argrees with Mr. Yancey that he "would much prefer to leave the subject of the importation of African slaves to the states respectively," which of course would be the fullest reopening of the slave trade. He thinks that there will be no need of importing slaves from Africa into Mississippi; but for such a sentiment, "Let no one, however," he says, "suppose that this indicates any coincidence of opinion with those who prate of the inhumanity and sinfulness of the trade."

"This

conclusion in relation to Mississippi, is based upon my view of her present condition, not upon any general theory. For instance, it is not supposed to be applicable to Texas, to New Mexico, or to any future acquisitions to be made south of the Rio Grande. All of these countries, which can only be developed by slave labor in some of its forms, and which, with a sufficient supply of African slaves, would be made tributary to the great mission of the United States to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to establish peace and free trade with all mankind." Mr. Davis's conceptions of the augmentation of the slave trade are rather large, when he calmly figures for a supply of slaves from that source enough to fill up all the states that are yet to be carved out from Texas and New Mexico, and the "future acquisitions to be made south of the Rio Grande." Truly, the American squadron on the coast of Africa will have to be withdrawn! Mr. Davis is very gentlemanly belligerent against that feature of the national law prohibiting the slave trade which declares it to be piracy. But he very well knows that the slave trade is a system of robbery practised on the bodies and souls of an unoffending people, which results directly in the death of many of their number, and therefore should be regarded as piracy. On an American slaver recently captured, one hundred and forty died and were thrown overboard during the voyage from the coast of Africa to Cuba. He also well knows that after long years of experiment and discussion in Congress and out, it was finally the almost unanimous conclusion of Congress and the country, that the slave trade was so strongly intrenched in

human selfishness that it could never be destroyed without the penalty of piracy. And to-day millions mourn, and millions rejoice, that even this penalty is not enough for its object.

But while Messrs. De Bow, Yancey and Davis do not openly advocate prosecuting the slave trade in defiance of law, we very well know what some of their satellites will do. The law adjudged unconstitutional, very many in the south will by no means wait for another Dred Scott decision to be pronounced. Accordingly we have such examples as this. Mr. L. W. Spratt of Charleston, in an address at a recent reception given him in Savannah, spoke as follows:

“But it is said we may not stoop to a measure forbidden by the law. It is not for us, so vested with the trusts of a great destiny, to scruple at the necessary means to its attainment. Situated as we are, we cannot abrogate the law; and must we then forego our destiny for want of the legal means to its achievement."

The audience that heard this, we are told, was "enthusiastic," " 'large and appreciative." The whole address was pronounced "replete with an elevated tone of truth and logic." Who can doubt that such heroes are already enjoying the profits of the slave trade, and live in expectation of still further advantage!

Let no one suppose that this opposition to the existing laws against the slave trade is confined to a few individuals. The Savannah (Ga.) News publishes the proceedings of a meeting of "a large and respectable portion of the citizens of Ware and the adjoining counties, assembled in the court house in Waresboro', on the evening of the 21st of September, to hear Colonel William B. Gaulden deliver an address on the reopening of the African slave trade." At the conclusion of his speech he offered the following preamble and resolution, which were adopted by the meeting:

44

In consequence of the high price of labor the agricultural interests of the South are in a languishing condition.

"Therefore, resolved, That in order to obtain the requisite supply, all laws, State and Federal, forbidding the slave trade, ought to be repealed."

The Sea Coast Democrat, Miss., learns from "good authori7

VOL. XVIII.