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132

ESSENTIAL CHARACTER OF SLAVE SOCIETY

CHAPTER VIII

THE DESIGNS OF THE SLAVE POWER.

WE have traced in the foregoing chapter the career of the Slave Power. In the present it is proposed to consider its probable designs. This, indeed, might well seem to be a superfluous inquiry; since, if we have correctly appreciated the past history of that Power, and the motives which have carried it to its present perilous attempt, we shall not easily err as to the objects which it would pursue in the event of that attempt being successful. Combinations of men do not in a moment change their character and aims; of all combinations aristocracies are the most persistent in their plans; and of all aristocracies an aristocracy of slaveholders is that the range of whose ideas is most limited, and whose career, therefore, is least susceptible of sudden deviation from the path which it has long followed.

Nevertheless, it will not be expedient to take for granted what would seem to be in such little need of proof; for there are those who tell us that this party, whose whole history has been a record of successful aggression and of pretensions rising with each success, has engaged in this last grand effort from motives the reverse of those which have hitherto notoriously inspired it; and who would have us believe that the Slave Power, which in the space of half a century has pushed its boundary from the foot of the Alleghanies to the borders of New Mexico, and which, from the position of an exceptional principle claiming a local toleration, has reached the audacity of aspiring to embrace the whole commonwealth in its domain --that this Power has suddenly changed its nature, and, in now seeking to secede from the Union, aims at nothing more than simple independence--the privilege of being allowed to work out its own destiny in its own way.

This assumption, indeed, however paradoxical to those who are familiar with the exploits of the Southern party, underlies most of the speculation which has been current in this country upon the probable consequences of a severance of the Union, and is that which has procured for the cause of secession the degree of countenance which it has enjoyed. It will therefore be desirable to consider how far the basis of the assumption is warranted-how far the altered position of the South-suppos

UNCHANGED BY INDEPENDENCE.

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ing it to make its ground good in the present struggle—is calculated to affect the character which it has hitherto sustained, and to convert an unscrupulous and ambitious faction into the moderate rulers of an inoffensive state.

And here we must advert to principles already established. We have seen the causes which have made the Slave Power what it is :—in its new position which of these causes will cease to operate? Slavery is to remain the "corner stone" of the republic more firmly set than ever. The economic and moral attributes of the South will therefore continue to be such as slavery must make them. Cultivation will be carried on accord ing to the old methods; the old process of exhaustion must, therefore, go on; and thus the necessity for fresh soils will be not less urgent under the new régime than under the old. The stigma which slavery casts on industry will still remain: there will, therefore, still be an idle and vagabond class of mean whites; and, since cultivation must still be contracted to the narrow area which is rich enough to support slave labour, there will, as now, be the wilderness to shelter them. There they must continue to drag out existence, lawless, restless, incapable of improvement, eager as ever for filibustering raids on peaceful neighbours. Lastly, the moral incidents of slavery must remain such as we have traced them. The lust of power will still be generated by the associations and habits of domestic tyranny, and the ambition of slaveholders will still connect itself with that which is the foundation of their social life, and offers to them their only means of emerging from obscurity. In a word, all those fundamental influences springing from the deepest roots of slave society, which have concurred to mould the character and determine the career of the Slave Power while in connexion with the Union, will, after that connexion has been dissolved, continue to operate with unabated energy.

Nor does this adequately represent the case. While the same motives to ambition will remain, the appetite for power will be still further stimulated by the exigencies of its new position. Connected with the North, the Slave Power was sus tained by the prestige of a great confederation. Through the medium of its government it was brought into harmonious relations with free countries; under the aegis of its protection it enjoyed almost complete immunity from foreign criticism. It so happened, too, that, during the chief period of its connexion with the Union, the South contrived to hold the reins of government in its own hands, and was thus enabled in the prosecution of its designs to wield a power far greater than its own, and to compass ends, which, in the absence of such support, could not

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POSSIBLE CONDITIONS OF INDEPENDENCE.

have failed to call up in other countries effectual opposition. But, separated from the North, it will neither command the same resources nor enjoy among foreign powers the same consideration. Its position will be one of absolute isolation from the whole civilized world: it will be compelled to encounter without mitigation the concentrated reprobation of all free society. Such a position will only be permanently tenable on one condition that of vastly augmenting its power. The South will not be slow to discover this; and thus, by more powerful inducements than it has yet experienced, the Slave Power will be precipitated upon a new career of aggression.

These considerations apply to every conceivable hypothesis as to the terms on which the independence of the Southern Confederacy may be accomplished. But, in order to bring out more distinctly the views which are likely to govern this body as an independent power, it will be convenient to consider the case on three distinct suppositions.

We may suppose, first, that the independence of the Slave Republic is recognized on the terms of permanently limiting its area to those portions of the South which are already definitely settled under slavery.

Or, secondly, we may suppose its independence to be recognized on the condition of its being restricted for the present to the above limits, but with liberty of colonizing, and, after colonization, of annexing the unsettled districts on equal terms with the North-the question of free or slave institutions being left to be determined by some principle analogous to squatter sovereignty.

Thirdly, we may suppose an equal division of the unsettled portions of the public domain between the contending parties, the South taking that portion which lies westward of its own boundary, including the Indian Territory and New Mexico.

Taking the first of these suppositions-the recognition of the independence of the South on the terms of being permanently confined within the limits of country already settled under slavery this would involve a considerable curtailment of the present area of the Slave States. Extensive districts included in this area cannot in any correct sense be said to be settled at all; and others are settled under freedom. The latter observation applies to large portions of Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, which would, therefore, on the hypothesis we are at present considering, pass to the side of the North; the former applies to Texas, and in a considerable degree to Arkansas. Thus, Texas, comprising an area of 274,356 square miles-an area greatly larger than that of France-contained in 1850 but

LIMITATION OF SLAVERY TO ITS PRESENT AREA. 135

58,161 slaves; and Arkansas, extending over 52,198 square miles-an area larger than that of England-contained but 47,100 slaves. Districts in which the slaves are not more numerous than this-albeit they may have been enrolled as slave states to meet the political exigencies of the Slave Power cannot be said to have been yet appropriated to slavery. The task of their colonization has yet to be performed; and on the supposition, therefore, that the Slave Power were restricted within the country which it has really settled, these districts with the others would pass from its grasp. Now, what future would lie before the Slave Power in the event of its being shut up within these limits? It seems to me we can have little difficulty in forecasting its destiny. If there be any truth in the best established conclusions, independence upon such terms could only be the prelude to an early overthrow of the present social and political fabric of the South. Once confine the operations of slavery to the tracts which it already occupies, and the ultimate extinction of the system becomes as certain as the ultimate surrender of the garrison of a beleaguered town which is absolutely cut off from relief. Emancipation would be gradually but surely forced upon slaveholders by irresistible causes; and scope would at length be given for the resuscitation of society upon wholesome principles. Each year would bring, on the one hand, an increase of the slave population, and on the other-as the soil deteriorated under the thriftless methods of slave culture-a diminished area of land suitable for its employment; and the process would continue till, in the words of Judge Warner, "both master and slave would be starved out." The process of decay would commence in the older states. There would be a fall in the price of slaves; breeding would no longer be profitable; and thus the single prop which has for fifty years supported slavery in those states would be at once withdrawn. For a time the working states might not be losers, and might even be gainers by the change. The price of labour might fall more rapidly than their lands would deteriorate. But it would be for a time only. The decreasing productiveness of the slave's exertions would at length reach the point at which the returns from them would not equal the cost of his support, and then the progress towards the catastrophe would be rapid. The fate of the older states would overtake every portion of the slave domain; and the whole body of slaveholders would be compelled to face the fearful problem of doing justice to four million victims of their own and their ancestors' wrong. It is not to be supposed, however, that the solution would be postponed to the last moment.

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SECOND CONDITION OF INDEPENDENCE.

So soon as the end came distinctly into view, provision would doubtless be made to meet the inevitable change; and the gradualness of the process would allow time for the action of palliative influences. Such, it seems to me, would be the result of independence on the terms involved in the first hypothesis. In such terms, however, we may be well assured, the Southern leaders, fully understanding as they do their own case, would only acquiesce after complete subjugation.

But, secondly, we may assume, as the condition of Southern independence, that the unsettled portions of the public domain (including under this expression, besides the Territories technically so called, the greater part of Arkansas and nearly the whole of Texas) should be open for slave colonization, while a like liberty should be accorded for free settlement; and we have now to consider what would be the effect of its position, as thus determined, on the fortunes of the Slave Power. Now I think it is plain that, in view of the competition which such a determination of the question would inevitably engender, the necessity would at once be forced upon the South of maintaining a footing in the unsettled districts at whatever cost. The attractions offered by the fertile soils and fine river systems of Texas and Arkansas could not fail to draw from the North, on the one hand, and from California, on the other, crowds of free settlers, who would quickly establish themselves upon the most eligible sites. If the South did not proceed with equal energy, it would find itself forestalled at every point. A cordon of free states would in no long time be drawn around its border, barring its advance towards the rich lands of Mexico, and throwing it back upon its exhausted fields. Is it likely that the Slave Power would quietly contemplate this consummation,-that it would look forward to what Mr. Spence aptly calls "the painful process of strangulation," without making an effort to break the bands which were gradully but surely closing around it? The supposition is incredible. Freedom and slavery would therefore once more renew their race in the colonization of the Territories. And on what grounds could the South hope for success in such a contest? The mortifying lesson taught in Kansas has not been forgotten. The South knows well that a renewal of the contest under conditions which then brought signal defeat must inevitably lead to a like result. But the conditions of the new trial of strength would, in one respect at least, be far less favourable for the Southern cause than those which proved disastrous in Kansas. The Slave Power would no longer find an accomplice enthroned at Washington. What happened in Kansas, therefore, would of necessity be repeated

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